


Keybladed Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. II

by The_Unlimited



Series: Light and Avengers [6]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Kingdom Hearts (Video Games), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Add in of new characters, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Gen, I never learned what the hell I'm doing, OC Vanitas, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 39,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26586676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Unlimited/pseuds/The_Unlimited
Summary: With Xemnas defeated, Vanitas convinces Sora to keep a promise to some friends they have on the other side of the universe. The rest of their group of friends tags along, and go meet the Guardians of the Galaxy, thinking it'll be a simple trip. Pretty soon, they're dealing with a golden queen that Rocket offended (because of course he did), a Ravenger mutiny, and the revelation of Peter's real father. Of course, they soon discover that not all is what it seems with the man...
Relationships: Donald Duck & Goofy & Player Character & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Donald Duck & Goofy (Kingdom Hearts) & Guardians of the Galaxy Team, Drax the Destroyer & Gamora & Groot & Peter Quill & Rocket Raccoon, Gamora & Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Gamora & Nebula (Marvel), Gamora/Peter Quill, Guardians of the Galaxy Team & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Guardians of the Galaxy Team & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Mickey Mouse & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Mickey Mouse & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Sora & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Light and Avengers [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1479848
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	1. Keeping a Promise

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure Mantis and Drax might actually get together at some point.
> 
> Also, could you believe I used to be really shitty with story summaries?
> 
> I also decided to just go with it with the Character Death tag, you know, cause of Yondu and Ego. In hindsight, I probably should have had it for Vol I and KHII, as well, what with Groot and Ronan, and all the Organization members and whatnot

Vanitas smiled with his friends as he watched Sora and Kairi embrace once more, just happy to be back in each others' presences. He had had a feeling that Xemnas nabbing Sora, Riku, and himself at the last minute like that must have been a shock for a girl, so just having them back must have been great for her. Or, more specifically, having _Sora_ back must have been great for her. Vanitas didn't know when the two of them were gonna own up to the feelings they had for each other, but he was gonna make sure to be there to take a picture of their first kiss. He had a bet to win with Tony Stark.

Vanitas then gripped his head as the brain freeze pain started once again. But at least this time, it was about happy events. He was seeing the outcomes of their friends on the different worlds after they had left.

First, he saw Twilight Town. Hayner and Seifer were charging at each other in a Struggle match with Pence and Olette cheering their friend on.

Then he saw 100 Acre Wood. Pooh was leading his friends through a beautiful garden of flowers up to the top of the small hill to look at the moon.

Next was the Land of the Dragons. Lao, Ling, and Chien-Po tried sneaking to see Mulan and Shang kiss, but were soon discovered. Shang reprimanded them while Mulan and Mushu laughed.

Next was Beast's Castle. Belle and Beast were having another attempt at the party, but the curse had been broken. Beast was now a human once again with blondish hair tied back.

After that was Olympus Coliseum. Hercules, Meg, and Phil had finished rebuilding the coliseum, and Auron watched them celebrating. Auron smiled for them before fading back into pyreflies that flew around the open grounds.

Then he saw Port Royal. Elizabeth and Will watched as Jack steered the Black Pearl through the moonlight with his compass, to wherever they wanted to go.

After that, he saw Halloween Town. Jack was back in his normal clothes, possibly going over the plans for next Halloween with Sally, Zero, the Mayor, Dr. Finklestein, and Lock, Shock, and Barrel.

Then he saw Space Paranoids. Tron took back his disk in the I/O tower Communications Room and started walking down the hallway, dancing along the way.

Next was Timeless River. Captain Pete got his steamboat ready at the dock for sail. Young Mickey ran into the area and jumped in surprise. He ran towards the boat and managed to leap aboard just as it was sailing out of the dock.

After that, he saw Agrabah. Jasmine and Aladdin flew on Carpet with Abu over the city, soon followed by Genie. Together, they flew up high into the air, with Aladdin and Jasmine just enjoying each others' company.

Then he saw Atlantica. Ariel was in human form again, having just married Prince Eric. That made Vanitas a little confused since he remembered the movie saying she was 16, but he put it up to different times on that world. Whatever the case, they waved off of the boat to King Triton, Flounder, and Sebastian below, who smiled and waved back.

Next was the much greener Pride Lands. Simba and Nala embraced on the long part of Pride Rock as Rafiki carried their newborn cub out. The sun shined brightly as Rafiki presented the newborn heiress to the throne for all to see.

After that was Radiant Garden. Cid was hard at work on the computer with Stitch resting on his shoulders, so Yuffie brought ice cream for both the three of them. Cid took his bar gratefully while Stitch took his with confusion. The Gull Wings then suddenly appeared and stole Yuffie's right out of her hand. She chased them out with Stitch following behind. On the other side of the room, Leon read a piece of paper that released a pink design of the wings on the back of his jacket into the air. Outside of town, Aerith swung her legs down over the mountains of the Dark Depths and smiled up into the air at where Cloud and Sephiroth had disappeared, hopeful for her friend. Although, once again, Vanitas wondered if she might have been the one that was dating Cloud.

And finally, the vision showed the Guardians of the Galaxy on the world of The Sovereign, battling a giant squid like creature with rows of razor sharp teeth that barfed out rainbow colored smoke. And that's when it came to him.

"Oh, you made a promise!" Vanitas announced with a smile, breaking Sora and Kairi out of their hug, and causing some confusion among the group. "To the Guardians of the Galaxy."

"Uh, who?" Riku asked.

"A group of intergalactic outlaws turned heroes," Donald explained. "We met them and helped them save the galaxy from Maleficent and a crazy dude named Ronan."

"And Sora promised once we finished the mess with Maleficent and the Organization, the first thing we'd do was go see them again," Vanitas added.

"I don't remember that," Sora said, trying to lie.

He had just gotten reunited with Riku and Kairi again, and he wanted to spend time with them for a while before going galavanting across the stars again.

But apparently, Vanitas didn't get that message. Instead, he cocked his head in thought and placed the tips of his pointed and middle fingers up to his left temple. He slowly moved his fingers away from his head, and a small grey circle appeared. Vanitas pointed the circle towards them, and the circle grew into an oval the size of a head. In between the oval, Sora and Vanitas appeared, along with Peter Quill and Gamora, all of them smiling at each other.

_"Do you have to go?" Gamora asked._

_"Maleficent is still out there," Sora reminded her. "Along with the Organization. As long as they're at large, none of the worlds are safe."_

_"Plus, eight of us in one ship would be kinda cramped," Vanitas admitted._

_"Very, yes," Drax agreed._

_"Don't worry," Sora told them. "Once this problem with Maleficent and Organization XIII is finished, the first thing we're gonna do is come see you guys again."_

_"I'm gonna hold you to that," Peter announced, pointing at Sora._

_"I'll make sure he fulfills that promise," Vanitas told them._

Everyone looked from the what just plated out to Vanitas in front of them.

"What was that?" Mickey asked.

"Uh, looks like an ability I have is showing people my memories," Vanitas assessed. "Man, that'll come in handy when I'm proving I'm right."

"Isn't that what you just did?" Goofy asked.

"Other times when I'm proving I'm right," Vanitas corrected himself.

"V, you're really gonna hold me to that?" Sora asked, now a little sad.

"You made a promise," Vanitas reminded him. "And when you make a promise, your word is your bond. To break that promise is to go against that word. Now, you gotta fulfill that promise and keep up your word."

"Wow," Riku muttered to Mickey. "He's actually a pretty great debater. There wasn't a single swear word or pop culture reference in any of those sentences."

"Everyone has some serious moments," Mickey pointed out.

Sora sighed out and said, "All right. We'll go see the Guardians."

"Hold on!" Kairi exclaimed. "You're not coming back just to go galavanting across the stars again and leaving me behind."

"Then come with us," Vanitas suggested.

"What?" Sora and Kairi simultaneously asked in surprise.

"Oh, come on," Vanitas said. "You saw her back in the castle. She did a good job against the Nobodies. If we run into some bad guys or something, she'll do good on her own. Just one more trip together before we all gotta go back home, huh?" *** _1_ ***

Sora looked at Vanitas in consideration, then looked at Kairi.

"Will you be able to handle yourself if we encounter danger?" he asked.

"Of course," Kairi said. She leaned down and picked up the Micro Uzi and the Sadu ASALT 96 she had forgotten to give back to Vanitas. "I've got these."

"Give those back," Vanitas said, taking the automatics and sliding them back into his sling. He then pulled out two holsters with handguns tucked within, one with a Beretta 92F, and one with a Snubnose Colt Detective Revolver. "Which one do you want?"

Kairi thought for a second and took the one with the Beretta, attaching it to her leg.

"All right," Donald said. "If we're really gonna go see them, then how exactly are we gonna get there? We kinda left the ship at Twilight Town."

"Simple," Mickey said.

He summoned his Kingdom Key D and waved it through the air, light around the tip of the blade. Within moments, the Gummi ship came into view from the sky, floating down next to the tinier island with the tree with the paopu fruit. The group climbed in the ship, and the four boys took their seats at the controls.

"Gotta admit, this is kinda cool," Riku admitted with a slight smile as he looked around the cockpit.

"I see why V was eager to get back in here," Kairi commented.

"You know it!" Vanitas agreed.

"All right, where're the Guardians?" Goofy asked.

"They're finishing up some business on the Sovereign," Vanitas told them, and the group went to work at the controls.

"I think I heard of that place," RIku said. "They're very easily offended. And breaking that law can have you executed."

"So we just say nothing that could offend them," Sora said.

"So Donald and I just shouldn't say anything," Vanitas assessed.

"Hey!" Donald snapped.

Everyone narrowed their eyes at the duck.

"Good point..." Donald sighed out in defeat.

"All right, fellahs!" Mickey announced. "Let's get goin'!"

"Bitching!" Vanitas cheered with a fist pumped in excitement.

They flew off of Destiny Islands and into the Lanes Between, towards where their friends were.

* * *

The Guardians of the Galaxy weren't having a very good day, to say the least.

First they had to go to the Sovereign to fight a giant squid like beast and keep it from stealing their Anulax batteries, in exchange for Nebula. They found out Rocket had stolen the batteries when a fleet from the Sovereign followed them. Peter got the idea to go through a quantum asteroid field to try to escape, and bickering between him and Rocket led to the back of the _Milano_ getting hit by an asteroid and being blown out. With one Sovereign craft still chasing them, Drax attached a harness around his space suit and grabbed a large blaster.

Drax exclaimed as he jumped out of the ship and shakily aimed his blaster.

"Die, spaceship!" he bellowed.

But then the Sovereign craft exploded right in front of him, and he gasped in amazement.

"My god!" Drax exclaimed. "This gun is so amazing it destroyed them without the trigger being pulled!" *** _2_ ***

Then the Gummi ship flew into his viewpoint, and he could see Sora, Vanitas, Donald, Goofy, and three others he didn't know in the cockpit.

"Oh," Drax said in realization. "That makes more sense."

" _Hello, Guardians!_ " Vanitas greeted the rest of the group through their ships' computers.

"V?" Rocket asked.

"Sora, Donald, and Goofy?" Peter asked.

" _Yeah, it's us!_ " Sora said. " _We brought a couple of friends with us._ "

" _What is going on?_ " Donald asked.

"We're being chased by a Sovereign fleet!" Gamora told them. "We're gonna make a jump to Berhert, which is five clicks away!"

" _What did Rocket do?_ " Vanitas asked.

"Hey!" Rocket exclaimed.

"He stole their Anulax batteries," Peter answered.

" _Of course, he did..._ " Goofy sighed out.

The two ships flew together out of the quantum asteroid field, pieces and the harnessed Drax still handing out of the hole in the _Milano_. Of course, they were soon surrounded on both sides by hundreds of Sovereign craft.

"What the heck?" Kairi asked, a little worried.

"Sovereign spacecraft," Mickey said. "Automated pilots."

"And they were just attacking the Guardians'," Riku pointed out. "Doesn't that mean they're gonna start attacking us, too?"

" _Son of a..._ " Peter's voice said in the intercom. " _They went around the field!_ "

"This is why I said we should've attached guns faced the back!" Vanitas announced. "Like I said, not every enemy craft we would face would be in front of us. We could've Millennium Falcon-ed that shit!"

" _Why does V's voice sound different?_ " Rocket asked.

" _That's an important question!?_ " Gamora snapped.

The Sovereign ships then started blasting at both ships, causing quite a bit of damage to the _Milano_ and rocking around the Gummi ship.

"Dah!" Kairi exclaimed, holding onto one of the walls as the ship shook again.

"We're okay!" Donald assured her. "The shields are still holding up good."

"How strong are they holdin' up?" Mickey asked.

"67% and decreasing," Goofy admitted.

"V, if we die today, I'm gonna kill you in the afterlife!" Kairi snapped.

"Understandable," Vanitas admitted as they did their best to maneuver around the blasts.

Then, to the amazements of the crews of both ships, the entire Sovereign fleet on both sides of them suddenly exploded in massive blasts.

"That was awesome," Riku announced, and Sora and Vanitas nodded their heads in agreement.

"With the Warp Drive Cid installed a while back, we should be able to follow them to Berhert," Donald announced. "Hold on, guys."

Back in the Milano, Gamora announced, "One click!"

Rocket's attention was drawn to a white ship that was flying outside, right towards theirs.

"What is that?" the raccoon asked.

"Who cares?" Peter asked, gesturing to the jump point in front of them. "That's the jump point! Go! Go!"

Rocket continued to stare at the white ship, seeing a man on top without a suit, waving at them.

"It's a guy," Rocket commented.

"Tell me I'm not the only one seeing a guy on a spaceship without a suit," Sora requested from his friends aboard the Gummi ship.

Everyone answered with their own renditions of "Yeah," or "I see it."

"We'll worry about that later," Vanitas said as the Milano went through the jump point.

"Warping to Berhert!" Goofy announced. "In 3, 2, 1!"

Purple, orange, and white light then surrounded the ship for a few seconds, obscuring their views of the outside. When they could see outside again, they had just enough time to watch the wrecked _Milano_ crash through trees below them.

"Oh, shit, son!" Vanitas commented.

They landed the ship much more smoothly behind the wreck and saw Drax on his hands and knees laughing, and Gamora right next to the ship, looking at the man like he was an idiot. The group climbed out of the ship and walked up to their grey skinned, muscular friend.

"Hey, Drax!" Sora greeted.

"Crazy pyrotechnic and clone!" Drax exclaimed with a smile and outstretched arms. "Greedy chicken and dumb dog!"

Drax laughed and pulled a laughing Vanitas into a hug, lifting him off of his feet. Vanitas exclaimed in pain as he looked down at his friends, half of whom were smiling, and the other half were surprised.

"I know I'm not used to having pain again..." he admitted with a cracked voice. "But I'm pretty sure he just broke my torso."

Drax placed Vanitas down as the rest of the Guardians climbed out of the ship, with the handcuffed Nebula. Kairi walked right up to Vanitas and angrily pointed at his him.

"We reached them, and immediately got caught in the middle of a firefight," she said with a low voice. "If this group of 'friends' of yours puts us in any more unnecessary danger, I will personally make sure you can never fire a gun agai..."

She trialed off at the sight of the baby Groot on the ground, and her entire demeanor changed.

"Oh, my god!" Kairi exclaimed in excitement, kneeling down towards the small tree like being. "That is the cutest thing I have ever seen!"

"Oh, he was adorable when you showed us that vision," Goofy commented, kneeling down next to the girl and looking at Groot. "But he's even more adorable now!"

Riku and Sora walked up to each side of Vanitas.

"Man, are you lucky that that tree was here," Riku commented. "Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not worried for you. Usually, I would be, but you're a reformed homicidal maniac that once went on a nine year murder rampage. I think you could take one teen girl."

"I'm still worried for you, even with you being a reformed homicidal maniac that once went on a nine year murder rampage," Sora admitted.

"Hey, Donald," Mickey muttered to his magician as he viewed Rocket and Groot in front of them. "Did either of them come from our world?"

"No, definitely not," Donald told him with a shake of the head.

"Look at this!" Gamora yelled, gesturing to the broken ship, and surprising the others. "Where's the other half of our ship?"

"My ship," Peter corrected her.

"Either one of you could have gotten us through that field..." Gamora snapped Peter and Rocket. "Had you flown with what's between your ears, instead of what's between your legs!"

"Huh, I guess they don't have the pilot dividend that we have," Goofy commented.

"Huh?" Kairi asked.

"They don't know how to divide the work in flying the ship, like we do," Sora translated for her. He looked at Goofy. "Right?"

"Yep, that's what I meant," Goofy said.

"If what's between my legs had a hand on it..." Peter told the members of the group staring at him. "I guarantee I could have landed this ship with it."

"There's a pleasant image," Vanitas commented, scrunching up his face with the rest of his friends.

"I see why you like these guys," Riku told Vanitas.

"Hey," Peter said. "Almost didn't see you guys there."

"Well, we had a promise to keep," Sora told him. "And V made sure I kept it."

"Oh, good to know," Peter said with a nod of the head to try to change the subject.

"Yeah, and I made sure to be extra convincing to get the others to come," Vanitas added. The Guardians frowned slightly at him. "Oh, right, the voice. Well, we figured out what was wrong with me. I was dying."

Their friends went wide eyed at that.

"Are you still dying?" Drax asked. "Did you come so we could help you pick out a... what's it called? A cassette?"

"No, I don't need a casket," Vanitas assured him. "We figured it out, and I even have my life force back."

"Oh, and these our our friends," Sora said. He pointed to each of their friends as he said, "This is Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey."

"Just Mickey's fine," Mickey assured the Guardians.

"And this is Peter, Gamora, Rocket, you already met Groot and Drax, and Amy Pond," Vanitas said, gesturing to each Guardian, then Nebula. Then he shook his head. "I mean, Nebula. Man, what's next with the Doctor Who references?" *** _3_ ***

"Peter, don't try to change the subject," Gamora said, garnering their attentions. "We almost died because of your arrogance.

"More like because he stole the Anulax batteries!" Peter snapped, pointing right at Rocket.

"They're called Harbulary batteries," Drax softly corrected him, wrong.

"No, they're not!" Peter exclaimed.

"Here," Kairi said, watching them and putting her hands on each side of Groot's head. "You shouldn't have to listen to this."

"He doesn't have ears," Donald told her.

"You know why I did it, Star-Munch?" Rocket asked, looking up at Peter. "Hmm?"

"I'm not gonna answer to 'Star-Munch'," Peter told Rocket.

"I did it because I wanted to!" Rocket snapped.

"Dick," Peter commented, turning away from Rocket.

"Sorry to tell you, but that's not a very good argument," Riku said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, we have people in jail who used that same excuse," Mickey admitted.

"You guys have jail on Disney Town?" Vanitas asked, confused frown on his face.

"What are we even talking about this for?" Rocket asked them. "We just had a little man save us by blowing up 50 ships!"

"You mean the guy who was on his ship without protection?" Kairi asked.

"You saw it, too?" Rocket asked.

"Well, since we weren't in a hurry, we were able to observe the atmosphere a bit," Sora said. "We all saw the guy."

The rest of the group that was in the Gummi ship nodded in agreement.

"How little?" Drax asked.

"Well, I don't know, like this?" Rocket guessed, holding two fingers pretty close together.

"A little one inched man saved us?" Gamora skeptically asked the raccoon.

"He's got seven people backing up his claim," Vanitas told her.

"Yeah, but with some of the Heartless you've described to us..." Gamora pointed out.

"If he got closer, I'm sure he would be much larger," Rocket said.

"That's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon," Peter told him.

"Don't call me a raccoon!" Rocket yelled in rage.

"I'm sorry," Peter said in an actually sorry voice that Vanitas saw right through. "I took it too far... I meant trash panda."

Rocket looked from Peter to Drax in thought.

"Is that better?" he asked.

"I don't know," Drax admitted.

"It's worse," Peter told Drax with a laugh. "It's so much worse."

"You said these guys were friends?" Kairi asked Vanitas and Sora.

"Well, teammates become friends," Vanitas commented. "You know how much I still make fun of Sora, Donald, and Goofy?"

"And how much V and I have been teasing Sora about you and him being together over the last hour?" Riku added.

Riku and Vanitas laughed at the blushes Sora and Kairi developed. Of course, their attentions were drawn to the bickering Rocket and Peter, who were yelling at each other once more. Nebula, the prisoner, ended up being the one to break up the fight by noticing the white ship in the air flying through the sky, right towards them.

"Someone followed you through the jump point," she announced.

"What's up with her?" Kairi asked as they all stood up and got ready for battle.

As Rocket extended out his blaster in preparation, Vanitas decided to take a quick look into Nebula's head. Once that ended, he winced and covered his mouth in shock, an expression of sorrow towards the mostly cybernetic woman.

"Holy fucking shit," he commented. "And I thought Thanos was bad enough."

"Thanos?" Sora and Mickey asked simultaneously.

"How do you know of Thanos?" Mickey asked.

"How do you know about him, Your Majesty?" Donald asked.

"I'll tell you later," Mickey informed them as they stared up at the white ship.

"Vice versa," Vanitas said, pulling out an MP5K machine gun.

"Set me free, you'll need my help," Nebula told Gamora.

"I'm not a fool, Nebula," Gamora told her adopted sister.

"You are a fool if you deprive yourself a hand in combat," Nebula told her.

"Lady, there's 11 of us," Riku told her, summoning his Keyblade. "And three of us have Keyblades."

Mickey and Sora summoned their Keyblades to emphasize the point. Kairi pulled out the Beretta Vanitas gave her and turned off the safety while Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons.

"I bet it's the one inch man," Drax eagerly told his friends.

The group watched as the oval shaped white ship floated down in front of them and crushed some of the remains of trees. An orange membrane like substance faded in the front, and two people walked out. One was a woman in green with black hair and antenna on top of her forehead. The other was a grey haired bearded man in robes with a cape. The man smiled as he looked at Peter.

"After all these years, I've found you," he said.

"And who the hell are you?" Peter asked.

"I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious," the man said with a slight shrug. "My name is Ego... and I'm your dad, Peter."

Shock flared among some of the Guardians and the Gummi group that knew of Peter's parental problems.

"Anyone else getting Empire Strikes Back vibes?" Vanitas tried joking. *** _4_ ***

Everyone just stared at him.

"Too soon?" Vanitas asked. He nodded his head and looked down. "Too soon..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 Of course V would be the one to convince them to take one last trip to see the Guardians before resting their laurels
> 
> *2 A little part of me feels that'd be in character for Drax
> 
> *3 Oh, you have no idea, V...
> 
> *4 My grandma and I saw this movie when it had come out, and she had commented that that was a little like the scene in Empire, so I decided to use that here


	2. Empaths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group splits off, some going with Ego, and some staying with the ships...

Throughout the remainder of the day, the group set up camp and prepared to sleep for the night on Berhert. As the Guardians tended to the campfire and prepared their capsules of dinner to share among the group, the Gummi quartet filled in the blanks for Mickey, Riku, and Kairi.

"That poor man," Kairi said, looking at Peter in sympathy.

"This could be good for him," Goofy told them. "After all these years, he's finally found his dad."

"Let's just hope he's not an even bigger outlaw than Peter used to be," Vanitas commented.

"I'm impressed by Drax and Rocket," Riku admitted. "After everything they've been through, you'd think they'd be more susceptible to darkness than I was."

"You'd think, yeah," Donald agreed. "But they're stronger than that."

"But with Gamora and Nebula..." Mickey said. "What do they have to do with Thanos?"

"The two of them are Thanos' adopted daughters," Vanitas said. "Stolen from their planets by the Mad Titan when they were children."

"Why's he called the Mad Titan?" Riku asked.

"Because he goes to planets and kills half their population," Mickey answered.

All six went wide eyed at that.

"Now I see what Maleficent was trying to tell us," Sora said.

"How do you know about Thanos, Your Majesty?" Goofy asked.

"He's been active for years," Mickey admitted. "We're lucky that he hasn't made it to our universe yet, but he's been blinded through his grief. He's the last of his kind, the Titans. They were overpopulated, and he offered a solution: kill half of all life, and the rest will prosper. They called him mad, and then they all died. I don't know much about his plans, but I know that he's convinced himself that what he's doing, going to planets and slaughtering half their people, he thinks he's the hero."

"This crazy bastard thinks he'll save the galaxy by killing a whole lot of people?" Vanitas asked, shocked.

He hadn't seen delusions this powerful since Xehanort. The similarities between Xehanort and this Thanos guy were continuing to build with each passing day, all but ensuring that this guy would be their next big threat.

"We've met lots of dark people on our journeys," Riku assessed. "But this guy might be one of the worst."

"Wait, so what did he want with the Power Stone?" Donald asked.

"The Power Stone?" Kairi asked.

"One of the six Infinity Stones," Vanitas answered.

"The Infinity Stones?" Mickey asked. "You've found those, too?"

"Three, so far," Sora answered. "One was on Earth 616, one on Asgard, and the Power Stone, which Thanos hired Ronan the Accuser to get for him."

"Ronan betrayed him and took the Stone for himself and Maleficent," Goofy explained. "That's how we met the Guardians, stopping them from using it to destroy Xandar."

"We're... a little off topic," Kairi said. "I understand that this guy... is freaking sick. We should take care of him eventually, but... what about Gamora and Nebula?"

"Thanos would have them fight when they were children," Vanitas said, bracing himself. "Gamora would win... a lot. And whenever she won..." He gulped as he braced himself. "Thanos would take a part of Nebula and replace it with a cybernetic part, wanting her to be Gamora's 'equal'."

The rest of his friends had their jaws dropped and their eyes wide in horror at Vanitas's words.

"He... tore apart his daughter and replaced her parts with robot parts?" Kairi asked, trying not to throw up.

"This guy has been doing this along with taking out half of life on each world he visits?" Riku asked.

Vanitas nodded his head.

"If we end up fighting this guy and kill him, it's gonna be one of the few murders I don't feel bad about," Sora announced.

"Me, too," Donald agreed.

"I don't blame you fellahs," Mickey admitted. "Like I said, we've been monitoring Thanos for years, but we haven't moved against him because our numbers are too small. I hate to say it, but we're gonna have to wait a bit to fight him with our numbers still so small."

"Is this Thanos guy really that powerful?" Kairi asked.

"He corrupted our friend's adopted brother and had him invade Earth 616 with an army of Chitari," Vanitas answered.

"Whoa," Riku said. "I've heard of the Chitari. They can be pretty ruthless."

"They were," Sora agreed with a nod of the head.

"As dangerous as this guy is, like His Majesty said, we'll have to wait to take care of him," Goofy admitted. "For now, let's talk with our friends about how excited we are to meet Peter's dad!"

The rest of the group had to admit, he had a point. They made their way over to the campsite where the others were finishing preparing dinner.

Vanitas gripped his head as he had a vision involving Yondu. The Kree captain and his other Ravengers were at some club on Contraxia with Howard the Duck, with Yondu himself finishing off doing some business with a yellow droid that was probably doing elicit things.

' _Aaand buying Jack one of those for his birthday,_ ' Vanitas thought. ' _Maybe it'll curb some of his urges._ '

Yondu went outside and met up with a higher up Ravenger, who then proceeded to tell him he was out of the group for breaking their own rules and dealing in kids. Kraglin muttered to another Ravenger, countering the alien when he tried asking them about a mutiny. Yondu's attention was then drawn to the side as the High Priestess Ayesha then started walking towards them in a way too elegant display.

"Eh, no way they'll actually take whatever offer that bitch makes," Vanitas muttered. "James Gunn wouldn't give Michael Rooker that many roles of a villain."

They sat down and took the offered cups of blue food, which Vanitas took quickly and eagerly. He moaned in pleasure as he ate his food, excited to finally taste again after so long.

"Are you eating that, or making sweet love to it?" Rocket asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Man, what's the difference?" Vanitas asked with his eyes closed. "Oh, my god, it feels amazing to taste again."

The rest of the group smiled at Vanitas's enthusiasm, but some of them, (like Donald, Gamora, Kairi, and Drax), decided not to look at him because of some of the moans he was making. *** _1_ ***

"I hired Yondu to pick you up when your mother passed away," Ego told Peter. "But instead of returning you, Yondu kept you. I have no clue as to why."

"Well, I'll tell you why," Peter said. "Because I was a skinny little kid who could squeeze into places adults couldn't. It made it easier for thievin'."

"Yeah, I remember you telling us that," Sora admitted.

"This guy stole a kid and taught him to be a thief?" Kairi asked, frown on her face.

"Yeah, world travel isn't all sunshine and rainbows," Riku told her.

"Well, I've been trying to track you down ever since," Ego admitted as Riku and Kairi said that to each other.

"I thought Yondu was your father," Drax told Peter.

"What?" Peter asked as most of the group frowned at the muscular man. "We've been together this whole time, and you thought Yondu was my actual blood relative?"

"You look exactly alike," Drax said with a mouthful of food.

"One's blue!" Rocket snapped.

Drax nodded and gestured to Peter.

"How thick are you in the head?" Donald asked Drax.

"No, he's not my father!" Peter told Drax. "Yondu was the guy who abducted me, kicked the crap out of me so I could learn to fight, and kept me in terror by threatening to eat me."

"Technically, he threatened to let the Ravagers eat you," Vanitas corrected before he paused. "And I just realized that's not better."

"Eat you?" Ego asked in surprise, lowering the spoon he had raised up to his mouth.

"Yeah," Peter confirmed.

"Oh, that son of a bitch," Ego accused.

"V, I see why you cuss so much," Kairi admitted.

"Don't you start," Sora sighed out. "We get enough from him to last for twelve people."

"Fourteen if I'm really pissed," Vanitas pointed out, literally pointing at Sora with a small smile.

"How'd you locate us now?" Gamora asked.

"Well, even where I reside, out past the edge of what's known, we've heard tell about the man they call Star-Lord," Ego told them. "What say we head out there right now?" He stood up and observed the others. "Your associates are welcome. Even that triangle-faced monkey there, and the big eared hamster."

Rocket frowned at that before placing his hands on the sides of his face in a self-conscious manner. Mickey did the same thing with his ears.

"I promise you, it's unlike any other place you've ever seen," Ego assured Peter. "And there, I can explain your very special heritage." Peter nodded his head as he looked up at his father, who was looking at him with a soft expression. "Finally get to be... the father I've always wanted to be... Excuse me. I've gotta take a whiz."

Peter nodded his head as Ego walked off. He then made a skeptical face as he looked at Gamora, Vanitas, and Sora.

"I'm not buying it," he admitted.

After a second, Gamora said, "Let's go take a walk."

Sora and Vanitas nodded their heads in agreement. Vanitas scooped out some more blue food into his bowl and they started walking off into the woods with Peter and Gamora. As they did that, the remaining members of the group continued sitting around the campfire, eating their food.

"I am Mantis," the girl with the antenna told Drax before smiling widely and nervously.

"What are you doing?" Drax asked as Riku's attention was drawn to the two of them.

"Smiling," Mantis answered. "I hear it is the thing to do to make people like you."

"Not if you do it like that," Drax said, looking down and putting another spoonful of food in his mouth.

"Yeah, you look like you're about ready to have a nervous breakdown," Riku admitted.

"Oh..." Mantis said, looking down at the fire. "I was raised alone on Ego's planet. I do not understand the intricacies of social interaction."

"What a coincidence, neither does Sora," Riku said with a smile. "His solution is to smile at everyone until they like him."

"Doesn't always work," Goofy admitted.

Mantis's attention was soon drawn to Rocket next to them, who was cleaning himself... in a way.

"Can I pet your puppy?" she asked Drax. "It is adorable."

Riku watched as Drax smirked to himself and nodded his head, understanding immediately what the plan was.

"Yes," Drax said as Riku did his best to stay straight faced.

Mantis started petting the back of Rocket's head, which caused him to growl. He tried lunging forwards and biting Mantis, who screamed as she narrowly pulled back her hand in time to stop from getting bit. Drax and Riku started laughing, which surprised Mantis and confused Kairi.

"That is called a practical joke!" Drax told Mantis through his laughs.

"You have no idea how hard I had to stop from giving it away when I figured out what his plan was," Riku admitted through laughs.

Mantis then started laughing with the boys and said, "I liked it very much!"

"I just made it up!" Drax admitted as they kept laughing.

Nebula frowned at the sight.

"They're idiots," Kairi muttered.

"Leave me alone," Nebula snapped, looking down.

" _Sorry..._ " Kairi said with a frown as she moved back next to Mickey.

"Give me a break!" Peter complained to Gamora, Vanitas, and Sora as he led the way out of earshot of the others. "After all this time, you're gonna show up, and all of a sudden you wanna be my dad?"

"I hear you," Gamora admitted.

"Same here," Vanitas agreed after swallowing another mouthful of blue food. "You're not the only one with daddy issues."

"And by the way, this could be a trap," Peter pointed out, stopping and facing them. "Okay? The Kree purists, the Ravengers, they all want us dead."

"Don't forget about the Sovereign after that mess Rocket caused," Sora pointed out. Vanitas agreed with his brunette clone by making a face that made it clear he agreed and pointing his spoon at him to emphasize the point. "Just caused he destroyed remote controlled ships doesn't mean he isn't in league with them."

"I know, but..." Gamora said.

"But what?" Peter asked, resting his hands on his belt.

"What was that story about Zardu Hasselfrau?" Gamora asked Peter with crossed arms.

"Huh?" Sora asked at the same time Vanitas asked with a full mouth, "What?"

"Who?" Peter asked.

"He owned a magic boat?" Gamora asked.

Peter still looked confused as he realized, "David Hasselhoff?"

"Right," Gamora said with a nod of the head.

"Not a magic boat," Peter corrected her. "A talking car."

"Oh, yeah, Knight Rider," Vanitas said with a smile, lowering his empty bowl. "Man, my granddad loved that show."

"Why did he talk again?" Gamora asked with a frown in confusion.

"To help him fight crime, and to be supportive," Peter answered.

Gamora pointed out, "As a child, you would carry his picture in your pocket and you would tell all the other children that he was your father, but that he was out of town."

"Shooting Knight Rider or touring with his band in Germany," Peter continued. "I told you that when I was drunk. Why are you bringing that up now?"

"I love that story," Gamora admitted.

"I hate that story," Peter told her. Gamora sighed out as she turned away. "It's so sad!"

"Very, yeah," Sora agreed.

"As a kid, I used to see all the other kids off playing catch with their dads," Peter told them. "And I wanted that, more than anything in the world!"

"That's my point, Peter," Gamora said, pointing out to the trees near them. "What if this man is your Hasselhoff? Listen, if he ends up being evil..." She walked up to Peter and covered his hands with her own. "We will just kill him."

"Yeah, but you'll regret it if you don't get the chance to have the father you always wanted," Vanitas pointed out, and Sora nodded his head in agreement.

Peter and Gamora quickly realized they were holding hands and backed away from each other. Peter frowned.

"I thought you were determined to find your own father and killing him?" he asked. "What changed to make you be the one to encourage someone to give their father a chance?"

"First of all, it's not killing him, it's kicking his ass," Vanitas corrected him. "And nothing changed. What's different here is that my mother made it clear that my father was a dick that abandoned us. You on the other hand, you mentioned that you've heard no such shitty things from your mother about your father. I say give him a chance."

They contemplated that for the rest of the night. And come morning, they made the decision that Sora, Vanitas, Riku, and Kairi would go with Drax, Peter, and Gamora with Ego and Mantis to Ego's planet. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy would stay back with Rocket, Groot, and the still bound Nebula, helping with the ship as best they could.

"You're leaving me with that fox, chicken, and hamster?" Nebula snapped at Gamora.

"He's not a fox, and he's not a chicken," Gamora corrected her.

"And I'm not a hamster!" Mickey added.

Gamora and the others had just finished gathering their bags of equipment from the ship for them to bring on the ship.

"Shoot her if she does anything suspicious," Gamora told Rocket as the raccoon went to work on the ship, grumbling in response. "Or if you feel like it."

"Gladly," Donald commented.

Gamora kneeled down to look at Groot better and smiled at the tree.

"It'll just be a couple of days," she assured him, running a finger up his face. "We'll be back before Rocket's finished fixing the ship."

"Until then, you get to hang out with us," Goofy assured Groot.

They watched as Gamora went out of the ship, Groot waving goodbye in slight sadness.

"What if the Sovereign come?" Drax asked Peter.

"There's no way for them to know we're here," Peter assured him.

"Yeah, pretty sure they don't have telepaths, like me," Vanitas added.

"Let's get going," Sora said.

"I'm uncertain about parting ways," Drax informed them.

"God, you're like an old woman," Peter commented in annoyance.

"Because I'm wise?" Drax asked.

"Not exactly," Kairi said as she and Riku followed Drax out of the ship to where Gamora was.

"Why do you have so much luggage?" Gamora asked.

"I don't want Groot playing with my things," Drax told her.

"Is that why I'm carrying this?" Riku asked in annoyance, a pretty heavy bag on his back.

As they walked out, Peter stopped and looked at Rocket, with Vanitas and Sora soon doing the same thing. The raccoon was hard at work fixing up the wall in front of him with the mechanic in his hands.

"I hope Daddy isn't as big a dick as you, orphan boy," Rocket coldly and blankly told Peter.

After a second, Peter asked, "What is your goal here? To get everybody to hate you? Because it's working."

"Pretty well," Sora admitted with a frown.

Vanitas shrugged his shoulders at the raccoon as he and the others walked out of the Milano and started walking to Ego and Mantis's ship, where the two of them were waiting inside. Rocket shook his head and looked down as he returned to work, Donald and Mickey moving to help while Goofy did his best to entertain Groot. *** _2_ ***

The group entered the ship, and the membrane like substance covered the entrance hole. The ship rose up into the air and started flying up into space. Within the ship, Mantis put a hand on Ego's head as the man laid down to sleep. Peter watched it happen while taking the picture of David Hasselhoff out of his jacket pocket and looking at it in consideration, while the others settled in along the ship.

Pretty soon, they were moving at what Vanitas guessed was some version of light speed. Sora, Vanitas, Riku, Kairi, Peter, and Drax were with Mantis in a lounge like area on white couches, Vanitas next to Peter, Riku next to Drax, and Sora and Kairi standing together next to Drax and Riku's couch. Vanitas had pulled a brownie out of his cooler and was munching on it.

"Hey, can I ask you a personal question?" Peter asked Mantis.

"Oh..." Mantis said, looking among them. "No one has ever asked me a personal question."

"Well, with no one else around you besides Ego, that's kinda natural, right?" Vanitas pointed out, gesturing at Mantis with his brownie hand. "Nothin's personal between just two people. I'm getting off track. Peter, go ahead."

"Thank you for your permission," Peter quipped before looking at Mantis again. "Your antenna, what are they for?"

"Their purpose?" Mantis asked, looking up at them briefly.

"Yes, Quill and I have a bet," Drax announced as Gamora walked into the room.

"Dude," Peter said in annoyance, looking down. "You're not supposed to say that!"

"You really aren't one for keeping secrets, are you?" Kairi asked Drax.

"I say..." Drax told Mantis. "If you are about to go through a doorway that is too low, your antennae will feel this, and keep you from being decapitated."

Kairi, Gamora, and even Riku smirked at how idiotic that sounded.

"Right," Peter agreed. "And if it's anything other than you specifically not being decapitated by a doorway, I win."

"Wish you guys told me that, I would've joined in," Vanitas remarked, chewing another bite of brownie.

"They are not for feeling doorways," Mantis told them.

Drax sighed out and closed his eyes in defeat while Peter, Vanitas, and Sora laughed.

"I think..." Mantis said as Peter took a sip of the water cup he had. "They have something to do with my empathic abilities."

"What are those?" Gamora asked, cup in her own hand.

"If I touch someone, I can feel their feelings," Mantis told them.

"You read minds?" Peter asked.

"No," Mantis said. "Telepaths know thoughts." Vanitas raised a hand and nodded his head in confirmation. "Empaths feel feelings. Emotions."

"Don't touch my brother after he watches a sexy scene in a movie, then," Vanitas said with a grimace. "That'd just make it worse."

"May I?" Mantis asked, raising a hand above Peter's leg.

"All right," Peter said, moving his cup of water to his other hand and resting his right hand on his knee.

Mantis placed her hand on top of Peter's, and the tops of her antennae glowed with a bright light.

"You feel love," she said with a smile.

With a look of surprise, Peter quickly said, "Yeah. I guess I feel a general, unselfish love for just about everybody."

"No!" Mantis corrected him. "Romantic, sexual love."

"No, no, I don't," Peter denied with a shake of the head.

"For her!" Mantis announced, pointing at Gamora.

"No!" Peter exclaimed, pulling his hand away as Gamora went wide eyed, and the others looked at her with dropped jaws. "That is not..."

And then Drax, Vanitas, and Riku started laughing very loudly.

"Okay," Peter said to try to alleviate the situation as Drax pointed at him. He even tried gesturing to Mantis to disprove her claim.

"She told everyone your deepest, darkest secret!" Drax laughed.

"Guys, come on!" Peter exclaimed as the three kept laughing. "I think you're overreacting a little bit!"

"You must be so embarrassed!" Drax yelled as they kept laughing.

"Do these two!" Riku told Mantis, gesturing to Sora and Kairi.

"Yeah, reveal their deepest secrets!" Vanitas added with a laugh.

"No!" Sora and Kairi said simultaneously in fear as they started running down the halls of the ship.

That just made them laugh even more.

"Do me!" Drax said, hopping up and down in his seat in excitement while patting his chest. "Do me! Do me!"

The three boys kept laughing, and as Mantis placed a hand on Drax's shoulder, she joined in on it.

"I have never felt such humor!" Mantis announced while laughing.

The four of them kept laughing, with Drax and Mantis pointing right at Peter to rub it in.

"So unbelievably uncool," Peter sighed out, looking down.

"Oh, Quill," Drax said, a little breathless as their laughter quieted down to chuckles.

Mantis walked up to Gamora to do the same with her. She raised her hand up to Gamora's shoulder, but the green skinned woman grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Touch me, and the only thing you're gonna feel is a broken jaw," Gamora coldly told Mantis.

"Jeez, she's just feeling what you feel," Vanitas commented. "Nothing bad's actually being done to you."

"Way to kill the mood," Riku commented. He moved to sit next to Vanitas and muttered, "Is she always like this?"

Vanitas waved his had to gesture 50-50.

"I can also alter emotions to some extent," Mantis admitted as she turned back to face the boys.

"Yeah, like what?" Peter asked.

"If I touch someone who is sad, I can ease them into contentment for a short while," Mantis explained. "I can make a stubborn person compliant. But I mostly use it to help my master sleep. He lies awake at night thinking about his progeny."

Drax then perked up and eagerly patted his chest, requesting, "Do one of those on me."

Mantis walked up to Drax and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Sleep," she said as the top of her antennae glowed again.

Drax then fell back directly in his seat, fast asleep and snoring loudly.

"That really would've come in handy during one of my parents' 'lectures'," Riku commented.

"Would've come in handy during one of Mansex's rants," Vanitas remarked.

The two laughed at that, prepared for a long flight ahead...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I got the idea for this from iZombie. The zombies can still be cognitive and live normal lives as long as they occasionally eat brains, but everything about them is dead, sort of like Vanitas without his life force. The only thing that killed them is a bullet to the head. After a member of the cast gets cured, he moans in a similar fashion when showing off to the main character how good it is that he can taste again
> 
> *2 I've started rewatching The Walking Dead in preparation for the season 10 finale next month. I've noticed that with this story, I have the same problem the show came to after a little while: so many characters, not as much stuff to do with them
> 
> I'm thinking of starting a story that takes place after The Fall of Radiant Garden and KHI, following Vanitas, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid on their adventures as they go through different worlds to help people. Or just cause all kinds of crazy shit. Including one where they take on that Jarra guy I had in Vol. I. What do you guys think?


	3. Celestial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While some of the group faces off against the Ravengers, the rest land on Ego's planet to learn his backstory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figuring out how to divide the movie into different chapters is pretty hard for this movie, since there's a lot of moving around with scenes. The scene with Rocket v. the Ravengers on Berhert only lasts five minutes, then the introduction to Ego's planet is another six

It was nighttime on Berhert once again, with the four moons shining bright in the air above the wreckage of the _Milano_. There was a campfire surrounded by various seats around it next to the ship, and a speaker system inside was playing Glen Campbell's "Southern Nights." Goofy and Groot were in the back of the Milano with the still handcuffed and sleeping Nebula while Donald and Mickey decided to help Rocket with his plan.

"It's been forever since we got to handle some good ol' fashioned mischief," Mickey had said with eagerness in his voice.

"I think the last time might've been with one of my cousins," Donald added. "Or my Uncle Scrooge."

"Scrooge?" Rocket asked. "Scrooge McDuck?"

"Yeah," Donald confirmed.

"Greatest con man I've ever heard of," Rocket admitted in awe. "I'm jealous of the many ways that he's made money."

"Wish he'd share some of that money," Donald grumbled.

"Doesn't even share with his family," Rocket had laughed. "That guy's my hero!" *** _1_ ***

Well after that conversation ended, the three set up their positions in the woods, just as the Ravengers got their position. The faction managed to completely surround the Milano as they slowly started inching towards it. Mickey had to hold back his exclaim of disgust as one Ravenger grabbed a large spider off of a nearby tree and ate it.

One group of Ravengers inched closer to the campsite, and one stepped on a hidden button, setting off Rocket's trap. Tranquilizer darts shot out of mechanisms attached to the trees, with multiple each finding themselves in the maybe dozen bandits. They all fell to the ground as they lost consciousness, with one guy firing his laser rifle up in the air, which garnered the attentions of Goofy and Groot in the ship and woke up Nebula.

"Nice trap," Donald complimented Rocket as they went through the trees.

"Thanks," Rocket muttered back.

As the two hummed along to the music still playing, they watched as another group inched towards the ground below them. The two then started climbing up the trees some more, soon garnering the attentions of the Ravengers below them. The Ravengers aimed their rifles up at the two, with one knocking out one of his allies with the swing of the gun.

That group of Ravengers fired their rifles up in the trees, and Donald and Rocket had to do a lot of dodging to keep themselves from getting hit by the laser blasts. Donald breathed in and out in fear as he and Rocket hid on a tree branch facing away from the Ravengers.

"I liked them better when they were on our side," Donald commented.

"Ah," Rocket sighed out, pulling out his remote and pressing a button.

Blue energy shot out of a device on the ground, sending half of the group of Ravengers flying up in the air, screaming as they flew up and fell back down against the ground. Rocket then pressed another button and sent the other half of the group flying up in the air. He and Donald laughed as Rocket sent one half up and down at a time.

While they did that, Mickey had summoned his Keyblade and was casting various spells on the group of Ravengers he had found. First, he used Sleep to knock out multiple Ravengers. Then, he used Zero Graviga to pick some more up and drop them to the ground hard. After that, he used Confuse to... confuse them to start swinging their rifles at each other.

"Confuse usually only worked on Unversed because they didn't have much cognitive thought," Mickey muttered with his eyebrows furrowed in thought as the Ravengers hit each other in the face with the rifles. "How little cognitive thought do these guys have?"

While Mickey contemplated that, Donald and Rocket found another group of Ravengers and started attaching small devices onto their heads. Once they finished attaching all the devices, they jumped up into the trees again and Rocket pressed the button, activating the devices and electrocuting all of the Ravengers in the group.

With that group defeated, Rocket and Donald jumped out of the trees and landed on the ground, soon followed by Mickey. Unfortunately, they soon had a Ravenger appearing on each side of them.

"Ain't so tough now without all your toys, are you?" the Ravenger in front of them taunted Rocket with a laugh.

Mickey blasted Fission Firaga at the Ravenger, which exploded and knocked him onto his back, unconscious. While he did that, Rocket and Donald ran to the Ravenger behind them, Retch, and Rocket climbed up to his head. Rocket punched Retch's head a bunch while Donald hit him in the legs with his staff. The man fell to the ground while groaning, and Rocket punched him in the face one more time, knocking him out.

A whistling sound familiar to Rocket and Donald garnered their attentions. They looked up to see a familiar arrow with red light around it fly through the air right towards them. Donald and Rocket closed their eyes and winced in preparation while Mickey tried slashing at it with his Keyblade, to no avail. However, to all their surprises, the arrow stopped and floated in the air in front of Rocket's face.

"Crap," Rocket said, opening one eye.

The three looked around as more Ravengers walked towards them, with Yondu chuckling as he led some of his men into the little field they were in. Mickey dismissed his Keyblade as he, Donald, and Rocket raised their hands in surrender.

"Hey there, rat!" Yondu greeted. "Nice to see ya, chicken! And who's the hamster?"

"How's it going, you blue idiot?" Rocket asked instead.

"Yondu?" Mickey asked Donald, who nodded his head in affirmation.

"Not so bad," Yondu said, picking his teeth a bit before walking in an arc around the trio. "We got ourselves a pretty good little gig here. This golden gal with quite a high opinion of herself has offered us a large sum to deliver you and your pals over to her, because she wants to kill y'all."

The Ravengers chuckled at that.

Back in the ship, Nebula looked directly at Groot and Goofy.

"Your friends..." she said. "There's too many of them. They need my help. If you care about them..." She held up her bound wrists. "You need to get me out of these bonds." *** _2_ ***

"Gawrsh, I don't know..." Goofy said in worry.

"They're going to kill him!" Nebula told them in a pleading manner.

Goofy and Groot looked down in consideration.

"I tell you, it was pretty easy to find you," Yondu admitted as the three kept their hands up. "I put a tracer on your ship back there during the war over Xandar."

"That didn't get destroyed with the ship when the Dark Aster went down?" Donald asked, frowning in confusion.

"Give me your word you won't hurt Groot, and I'll tell you where the batteries are," Rocket insisted.

Yondu chuckled, "Lucky for you, my word don't mean squat."

Other Ravengers started laughing.

"Otherwise, I'd actually hand you over," Yondu added.

That caused confusion to spread throughout the Ravengers, and Donald and Mickey.

"Otherwise, you'd what?" an ugly, purple faced, bearded Ravenger asked in confusion.

"We'll take them batteries," Yondu announced. "They're worth, what? A quarter mil on the open market?"

"This guy is more considerate than you guys made him sound," Mickey commented.

"That Priestess offered us a million," the bearded Ravenger snapped. "A quarter is only one third of that!"

"A quarter ain't a third," Yondu told him with annoyance on his face.

"A quarter is 25," a human looking Ravenger wearing goggles named Gef announced.

"No," Yondu said, looking down and shaking his head.

"We can't even buy a pair of boots with 25 units," Gef pointed out.

Rocket, Donald, and Mickey looked at the arguing Ravengers with contemplation growing in their eyes.

"Enough!" Yondu announced. "The point is, we ain't stupid enough to help kill the Guardians of the Galaxy! The whole dang Nova Corps would be on us."

"That ain't right!" Kraglin announced, getting Yondu's attention. "I just gotta say it this one time, Captain. No matter how many times Quill betrays you, you protect him, like none of the rest of us much matter!"

"Yeah!" Ravengers yelled in agreement.

"I'm the one what sticks up for you!" Kraglin added.

"Take it easy, Kraglin," a Ravenger that sounded like a pirate warned.

"Damn straight, lad," the ugly, bearded Ravenger agreed, pointing at Kraglin. "He's gone soft. Suppose it's time for a change in leadership."

He pointed his blaster up at Yondu, and many other Ravengers exclaimed in agreement before they all started pointing their guns at each other. Yondu even whistled and had his arrow fly up into his eyesight in preparation.

"Put your damn guns down!" the pirate sounding Ravenger announced.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Rocket announced, him and Donald gesturing with their hands. "There must be some kind of peaceful resolution to this, fellas. Or even a violent one where I'm standing over there."

He pointed to the side.

"I'm the King of my own world," Mickey said, using the card he never once used during his entire rein. "If I get harmed or killed, then you'll find yourselves at war with a whole nation."

The Ravengers looked from them back to each other. Yondu looked up at the ugly guy with the beard, and prepared to whistle...

But then the device on his head blew up from blaster fire. Yondu winced a bit before falling right to the ground, showing Nebula standing right behind with a blaster raised. Donald and Rocket frowned at the cybernetic woman, who then fired at the blaster at them. The electric blasts knocked them onto their backs, and they exclaimed as they lost consciousness.

"Hey..." Mickey started to say with his hands raised in surrender.

But then Nebula blasted him, too, making him exclaim as he lost consciousness, too. The Ravengers looked from the now unconscious trio to Nebula, who was lowering the blaster.

"Well, hello, boys," she greeted. She took a bite of Yarro root in her cybernetic hand before immediately spitting it out onto the ground. "It's not ripe."

* * *

On the other side of the universe, the white ship containing the rest of the group flew down to a large red planet with blue lights occasionally going through the atmosphere. The group stood together as the ship docked itself on a port in the middle of a large fountain surrounded by trees of various shapes and colors. The group gathered on a platform that floated out of the ship and through the air, letting them see the extensive landscape all around them.

"This is..." Sora said in wide eyed amazement.

"Beautiful," Kairi finished for him.

"Very, yeah," Vanitas agreed as he and Riku nodded their heads in agreement.

The white platform continued flying forwards through the air, leaving behind a trail that looked like water ripples.

"Welcome, everyone, to my world," Ego said, turning and facing them with his arms raised to gesture out to the world.

"Wow," Peter said. "You have your own planet."

"Come on," Ego said, turning away from them with a humble voice. "No larger than your Earth's moon."

"Humility," Drax assessed. "I like it. I, too, am extraordinarily humble."

"Uh, wrong word," Riku told him.

Their attentions were soon drawn to the bubbles that floated above them with designs with various colors. Drax tapped one, and laughed in amazement as it broke up into lots of smaller bubbles of different colors. Riku laughed with him in child like wonder as more bubbles bumped into each other, breaking up into smaller ones of different colors. The rest of the group stared with them in amazement as they flew past giant stalagmites and towards the giant palace in front of them.

The small platform stopped in front of a platform in front of the palace, with the front converting into a bridge onto the platform. They filed out of the platform and walked across the platform, coming next to a giant fountain with what looked like fish leaping up through the air out of the water. They walked along the fountain before Ego raised up his hands, stopping them in their places as he faced the fountain.

"Peter..." Ego said, gesturing to the fountain. "Consider this a token of a father's pride."

They watched as the water and the fish fell back down, revealing a large white statue. The centerpiece was a large version of Peter holding up a sword, one leg raised in a 90 degree angle. A small Drax with a monkey tail holding a club that looked like a fish rested on Peter's shoulder, a smaller Gamora was kneeling down resting on Peter's straight leg, and a defeated, dead Ronan was under Peter's raised foot. There was also what looked like a cloud behind him with what looked like a pole holding it up.

"What the fuck is this?" Vanitas asked, frowning in confusion.

"A memorial, of the war over Xandar," Ego explained. "When you single-handedly saved the galaxy."

"Single-handedly?" Gamora asked.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sora asked.

"It's perfect," Peter sighed out as he looked up at the statue.

"Do you need your eyes checked?" Vanitas asked Peter. "'Cause I'm pretty sure that's not what happened."

"You're kidding me, right?" Gamora asked Peter with crossed arms.

"Why am I dead?" Drax asked, looking at the Ronan part of the statue. "Why did you all kill me?"

"Drax, that's not you," Riku pointed out.

"That's Ronan," Gamora informed him before pointing up at the small, monkey like Drax part of the statue. "That's you."

"This guy made you look like a monkey," Sora said.

"And you look like you're holding a fish," Kairi added.

"When was I that tiny?" Drax asked.

"You were never that tiny," Gamora told him.

"What are you talking about?" Drax asked, looking up at the small Drax. "I'm looking at me." *** _3_ ***

"Okay, we could be here all day talking about this," Kairi said in annoyance.

They continued their walk around the fountain towards the staircase in front of it.

"You own a planet and can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit," Gamora assessed to Ego. "What are you exactly?"

"I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart," Ego answered as he and Mantis kept walking to the staircase.

The rest of the group stopped in front of the fountain as the water and fish rose up again.

"A Celestial, like a god?" Peter asked.

Peter turned towards them and said, "Mmm, small 'g,' son. At least on the days I'm feeling humble as Drax."

Ego chuckled as he turned from them and started walking up the staircase. The group looked at each other in consideration before they followed him up into the main room of the palace. There were many columns in the room going up to the ceiling on each side, with large open metal spheres between each of the columns. Along the ceiling were many beautiful, colorful designs that surrounded the skylight windows along the top.

"Whoa!" Peter exclaimed.

"That is awesome," Vanitas admitted.

"Very, yeah," Sora said, throwing back his words from earlier.

They followed Ego to the sphere with a visual of a grey brain in the middle of space.

"I don't know where I came from exactly," Ego admitted. He gestured to the grey brain as light started glowing between the lines. "First thing I remember is flickering, adrift in the cosmos utterly... and entirely alone."

His tone of voice actually made Sora, Vanitas, Kairi, and Riku feel bad for him. Although, Vanitas couldn't help but feel like there was something hidden deep in his words.

"Over millions of years, I learned how to control the molecules around me," Ego continued as lines appeared over the brain, followed by a grey and red sphere, similar to the planet. "I grew stronger and smarter." He started leading them to another sphere. "And I continued building from there..."

The sphere he led them to was another depiction of the brain, with what looked like planet layers covering it, forming a small simulation of the planet they were on.

"Layer by layer," Ego continued. "The very planet you walk on now."

"Whoa," Peter said as he and the others looked around.

"This entire planet is your body?" Riku asked, frowning.

"Yes," Ego said with a nod of the head.

"We're walking along on top of you right now?" Kairi asked, an expression of disgust growing on her face.

"Yes," Ego said simply with a smile.

Vanitas then remembered the fourth Heroes of Olympus book, when Percy and Annabeth had to go through Tartarus, and Percy had remembered how the surface of the pit was said to be the immortal being's body. He suddenly felt sympathy for the two fictitious characters, not knowing exactly what part of Ego they were walking on.

"That's just..." Vanitas started to say.

"No offense, but... _wrong_ ," Sora said in disgust.

"Eh, it's not for everyone," Ego admitted. He looked at Peter. "But, I wanted more. I desired..." He held up one finger. "Meaning."

Ego turned towards another sphere and started walking towards it. He continued, "'There must be some life out there in the universe besides just me,' I thought. And so, I set myself the task of finding it."

Ego gestured to a sphere he passed, which showed a light traveling up the visualization of his brain and up the planet core.

"I created what I imagined biological life to be like," Ego continued as the light travelled up the visualization of the planet. It came up to the surface and started forming itself into a man with wavy center parted brown hair, a red leather jacket, grey shirt, and black pants. "Down to the most minute detail."

"Did you make a penis?" Drax asked.

"Dude!" Peter exclaimed as they all looked at him.

"What is wrong with you?" Gamora asked.

"Are you not right in the head?" Kairi asked.

"If he is a planet, how could he make a baby with your mother?" Drax asked Peter in a reasonable voice. "He would smush her!"

"Hate to say it, but the man's got a point," Riku pointed out as Peter groaned.

"I don't need to hear how my parents..." Peter whispered to Drax. He gestured with his hands to emphasize his point.

"Why?" Drax asked in confusion. "My father would tell the story of impregnating my mother every winter solstice."

"That's disgusting," Peter snapped.

"That's disturbing," Sora corrected him with a frown.

"It was beautiful," Drax told them with a frown. "You Earthers have hang-ups."

"I haven't been this disgusted since I found out my mom fucked an alien," Vanitas commented.

Sora frowned and looked at his friend.

"When'd you figure that out?" Kairi asked for her boy... for Sora.

Vanitas paused as he realized he didn't know that himself. He looked down as he had a smaller flashback to himself sans scar dressed in black in an alien ship with his arms bound, a younger looking Nick Fury next to him, and a familiar looking African American woman next to Nick.

_"Oh, man, my mom fucked an alien!?" Vanitas exclaimed._

_"Are you trying to give yourself nightmares?" Nick asked._

Present day Vanitas shook his head and looked at his lookalike.

"Just... a while ago," he said, softly.

"Yes, Drax, I got a penis," Ego told Drax.

"Ha!" Drax exclaimed in triumph, gesturing to Ego. "Thank you!"

"It's not half bad," Ego admitted in a humble voice.

"Oh," Peter said in an understanding voice. Then he exclaimed, "Uh!"

Vanitas laughed, "Dude that's your dad's..."

"Shut up!" Peter insisted.

"I've also got pain receptors, and a digestive system," Ego continued, holding out his arms. He started walking past them. "And all the accompanying junk."

Ego walked past them towards other spheres as he continued, "I wanted to experience what it truly meant to be human, as I set out amongst the stars."

He gestured to the new sphere in front of him, which showed a visualization of the ship they had taken flying off the planet and through space.

"Until I found what I sought. Life," Ego said, pointing to the sphere. The visualization changed to show him finding a young pink skinned girl in a dress holding a stuffed bear. "I was not alone in the universe after all."

After a second, Peter asked, "When did you meet my mother?"

Ego looked down and then back at Peter, admitting, "Not long after."

He led them over to another sphere that shifted to show a visualization of young him wrapping his arms lovingly around a blonde woman in a green dress.

"It was with Meredith that I first experienced love," Ego admitted. The visualization changed to show the woman in a green dress with flower designs, and the two about to kiss. "I... called her my river lily."

"Aw..." Kairi said, failing to hide the romantic in her.

She even subconsciously took Sora's hand without even noticing it. The brunette didn't notice it either, just gripped it back without question.

The visualization then changed again to show the woman in a green dress with a distended pregnant stomach.

"And from that love, Peter..." Ego continued as Peter walked up next to him to look up at the sphere. "You."

The visualization shifted once more to show the actual outline of a baby on the blonde's pregnant stomach.

"That was... probably unnecessary," Vanitas muttered.

"Probably?" Riku countered.

"I have searched for you for so long," Ego told Peter. "And when I heard of a man from Earth who held an Infinity Stone in his hand without dying, I knew you must be the son of the woman I loved."

Peter stared at his father in contemplation before asking, "If you loved her, why did you leave her?"

Ego said nothing as he looked down in shame.

With nothing else to do, the rest of the group dispersed to look around the rest of the palace, with Mantis sticking with Drax, and Riku sticking with the two of them. Vanitas decided to stick with Sora and Kairi, who took their hands back with embarrassed blushes. Vanitas smirked as he took his much-used-to position of the Third Wheel, preparing to make things miserable for the duo in denial. *** _4_ ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 Hey, if V knew who Scrooge was back in Birth By Sleep, I feel it'd make sense that Rocket would also know who the guy is. And be both awestruck and jealous of his money
> 
> *2 I accidentally wrote bongs there at first instead of bonds. Could you imagine that? 😂
> 
> *3 Deleted scene
> 
> *4 We could actually make a calendar based around the times throughout this series that Vanitas has been the third wheel and proud


	4. Taserface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While some of the group has to witness a Ravenger mutiny, the others find stuff to do on Ego's planet

The main ship housing the faction of Ravengers that used to belong to Yondu Udonta flew through the vast void of space. Pandemonium was going on all throughout the small room the heroes were trapped in. Groot was locked in a small birdcage that swung around all over as Ravengers messed with him. Nebula just stood on the side of the room and watched impassively. Yondu, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Rocket were restrained in chairs to stop from interfering in what was going on in front of them.

And what was going on in front of them was nothing short of horrific overkill.

"This is mutiny!" Tullk, the pirate sounding Ravenger bellowed. "This is mutiny!"

All the other Ravengers had rounded up the ones that were loyal to Yondu, one of them being Tullk. The other Ravengers dragged Tullk across the ground and threw him into the small airlock room, sliding the panel shut behind him. Tullk stood and yelled at them through the window of the panel. They gathered around the panel and taunted the man right before opening the other side of the airlock.

The air rushed out of the small room quickly, killing Tullk almost instantly. To somehow make things even more cruel, the Ravengers around the panel just waved goodbye to the man's dead body as it floated out into the void, joining the line of bodies that had gathered through the void.

Mickey winced as he looked down and kept his eyes squeezed shut tightly. Never before had he ever seen anything so cruel throughout his long lifetime. When he saw it happen the first time, he promptly threw up over the edge of his chair and onto the floor, just making the men around him laugh even more. His heart went out to the poor people who had died over the course of the last hour that way, wishing there was something he could've done to help them.

Donald and Goofy's reactions would have been similar to Mickey's, but after hanging out with Vanitas so much and hearing about those show he liked, (The Walking Dead, Supernatural, and Doctor Who), they were slightly desensitized to what had happened. That didn't mean they weren't still horrified by it, though.

Goofy's heart went out to those who had been lost, hoping that they'd at least find some form of peace in death.

Donald mourned the dead men while also growing even more angry at the man who orchestrated all of this, the particularly ugly, bearded Ravenger who had led this mutiny in the first place, and was now laughing cruelly as they picked up another Ravenger loyal to Yondu. It was moments like this that he wished every time they encountered a bad guy, their attentions weren't always immediately drawn to Sora and Vanitas being the heavy hitters. He was just as powerful as the two of them, being one of the five most powerful sorcerers in the universe. If these idiots slipped up and let him get his staff back, then he'd be able to show them just how good he was. *** _1_ ***

The Ravengers' next victim was a red skinned man with long, brown hair.

"Captain!" he exclaimed in desperation to Yondu. "Help me! Please! Captain!"

The rest of the Ravengers led him to the airlock, while the ugly Ravenger in charge leaned down to look at Yondu better.

"You're the one what killed those men by leading them down the wrong path," the Ravenger said. He grabbed Yondu's head with his left hand. "Because you're weak."

He punched Yondu, who exclaimed as his torso fell towards the chair arm. To add insult to injury, the other Ravengers just cheered at the action.

"And stupid!" the Ravenger added, ramming his fist into the top of Yondu's head.

While all the other Ravengers cheered again, Kraglin watched with discomfort on his face. He looked at all the other cheering men with uncertainty.

"It's time for the Ravengers to rise once again to glory with a new captain," the ugly man bellowed. He raised his fists in glory as he announced, "Taserface!"

All the Ravengers cheered as they rose their fists up into the air. However, their cheering was soon drawn out by the laughing coming from Rocket and Donald. Even with how mad Donald was at these idiots, he couldn't stop himself from joining in on Rocket's laughing.

"I'm sorry," Rocket stammered out as Taserface turned to face him. "Your name is... It's Taserface?"

"That's right," Taserface confirmed.

"Dude, I have a cousin named Launchpad, and even that's a better name than Taserface," Donald snapped.

"Ha!" Rocket laughed, looking from his friend to Taserface. "I mean, do you shoot tasers out of your face?"

"It's metaphorical!" Taserface announced, raising his fists in glory once again.

The Ravengers once again raised their fists and cheered with him.

"For what?" Rocket asked.

"Yeah, not sure I get the metaphor," Goofy admitted.

After a second, Taserface announced, "It is a name what strikes fear into the hearts of anyone what hears it."

That caused some mutterings to break out among the Ravengers, with a couple of them saying "okay."

"No, it really doesn't," Donald said.

"He's right," Mickey said, breaking out of his horrified expression. "I've heard plenty more terrifying names throughout my time."

"But whatever you say, Taserface," Rocket told the man.

"You shut up," Taserface told them, holding out a knife. He pointed it at Rocket. "You're next."

He then leaned down towards Yondu and held the knife to Yondu's neck, right under the blue man's chin. "Udonta, I have waited waited a long time to do..."

But his attention was once again drawn to Rocket and Donald's snickering.

"What?" Taserface snapped.

"I'm sorry," Rocket said through his laughs. "I am so sorry!" Taserface stood straight up and looked at Rocket. "I just keep imagining you waking up in the morning, sir, looking in the mirror and then in all seriousness saying to yourself, 'You know what would be a really kick-ass name? Taserface'!"

Rocket and Donald started laughing again, and pretty soon, the other Ravengers had to start hiding their laughs.

"That's how I hear you in my head!" Rocket said through his laughs.

"I can't imagine you actually saying that with a serious voice!" Donald admitted with a laugh. "What was your second choice?"

"Scrotum hat?" Rocket suggested.

This time, everyone but three people joined in on their laughter, the Ravengers, Groot in the cage, even Mickey and Goofy.

"New plan," Taserface announced, leaning on Rocket's chair and holding the knife to his neck. "We're killing you and the chicken first."

"Well..." Rocket said. "Dying is certainly than having to life an entire life as a moronic shitbag who thinks Taserface is a cool name."

"Like I said, even Launchpad is better than that, you stupid moron," Donald said.

"That's enough killing for today," Nebula announced, garnering Taserface's attention.

Taserface stood up off of Rocket's chair and watched as she started walking past the other Ravengers towards him. One even muttered, "She's the daughter of Thanos," with urgency in his voice.

"I thought you were the biggest sadist in the galaxy," Taserface said.

"That was when Daddy was paying my bills," Nebula countered. "The Priestess wants to kill the fox herself. The hamster, chicken, and dog come from a universe where they're royalty. You wanna imagine how much they'll pay to get their King, Captain, and Magician back?"

"How come he's the only one with a correct label?" Donald muttered as he looked at Goofy.

"And he has bounties on his head in at least 12 Kree provinces," Nebula added, gesturing to Yondu. Taserface breathed out as he faced the cybernetic woman. "I assure you, I am not as easy a mark as an old man without his magic stick, or a talking woodland beast."

Groot watched their interactions in his position in the cage that was swinging between their heads.

"I want 10% of the take," Nebula told them. "And a couple more things."

Pretty soon, Nebula had on a red leather Ravenger jacket, and was attaching a better cybernetic hand on her left wrist.

"We got a whole box of hands if that one don't work out," Kraglin informed Nebula as he led her to the hanger.

"It is fine," Nebula assured him.

"You, uh, think them Kree is gonna execute the captain?" Kraglin asked.

"The Kree consider themselves merciful," Nebula told him. "It will be painless."

Kraglin winced at that, but shrugged it off.

"Well, here it is," he said, gesturing into the ship in the hanger next to them. "It's the best ship we got. Location to Ego's planet in the nav. We'll wire you the 10% once we's paid. What are you gonna do with your share?"

"As a child, my father would have Gamora and me battle one another in training," Nebula told him. "Every time my sister prevailed, my father would replace a piece of me with machinery, claiming he wanted me to be her equal. But she won... again and again, and again, never once refraining... So after I murder my sister, I will buy a warship with every conceivable instrument of death. I will hunt my father like a dog, and I will tear him apart slowly... piece by piece... until he knows some semblance of the profound and unceasing pain I know every... single... day."

Kraglin was staring at her in wide eyed horror as she finished her rant.

"...Yeah," he said. "I was talking about, like, a pretty necklace." Nebula looked at him, expressionless. "Or a nice hat. You know, something to make other girls go, 'Ooh, that's nice!' ...Anyway, happy trails."

He patted Nebula on the shoulder and walked back down the hallway he came from, moving pretty quickly out of fear. Nebula brushed the part of her shoulder he had patted and turned towards the ship, preparing herself for the trip.

* * *

Back on Ego's world, Kairi had figured out what Vanitas's game was and went off with Gamora, leaving Sora and Vanitas alone. Vanitas had to admit, he saw it coming. Kairi had proven on more than one occasion to be, for lack of a better word, smarter than Sora, so it would make sense that she'd see through his tricks.

"What did she mean when she said she could 'see through your bull-crap'?" Sora asked Vanitas, still oblivious.

"Oh, you'll find out eventually, buddy," Vanitas assured his brunette lookalike with a hand on his shoulder.

The two then decided to go find Peter, knowing that their friend would want their support with what was going on today. They found him standing near his father as they both looked up at a statue that they figured was Peter's mother, Meredith. Ego stopped staring at the statue and at Peter.

"My mother told everyone my father was from the stars," Peter informed them. He looked at Ego. "She had brain cancer, so everyone thought she was delusional."

"Huh, when my grandpa got cancer he said that his pet turtles were conspiring to kill him," Vanitas muttered to Sora. "We're pretty sure he put the little knives in the cage himself."

While Vanitas muttered that to Sora, Ego held out a reasoning hand to Peter.

"Peter..." he started to say.

"Listen, I'd love to believe all of this, I really would," Peter told his father. He started to walk past Ego. "But you left the most wonderful woman ever... to _die alone_."

"I didn't want to leave your mother, Peter," Ego said as he turned to Peter and walked closer to Peter. "If I don't return regularly to my planet and the light within it, this form will wither and perish."

"So why didn't you come back?" Peter rebutted. "Why did you send Yondu? A criminal, of all people, to come and fetch me?"

"I loved your mother, Peter!" Ego said, desperation in his voice. "I couldn't stand to set foot on an Earth where she wasn't living! You can't imagine what that's like!"

"I know exactly what that feels like!" Peter snapped. "I had to watch her die!"

Sora and Vanitas winced as they heard the hurt in their friend's voice.

"Over the millions and millions of years in my existence, I've made many mistakes, Peter," Ego started. "But you're not one of them. Please give me the chance to be the father she would want me to be."

Peter stared at Ego in contemplation.

"There's so much that I need to teach you about this planet, and the light within," Ego said. "They are a part of you, Peter."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, confusion on his, Sora's, and Vanitas's faces.

"Give me your hands, son," Ego said. He took Peter's hands and held them out in front of him. "Here. Hold them like that." He stepped back. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate."

Peter followed Ego's instructions and did exactly that, breathing in and out.

"Take your brain to the center of this planet," Ego continued instructing.

Peter continued doing that, then to all their amazements, blue light appeared over his hands. He gasped in surprise.

"Holy shit!" Vanitas exclaimed in amazement.

"Yes!" Ego cheered. "Yes!"

"Whoa!" Peter exclaimed as the light faded, both surprised and a little freaked out.

"Yes, yes, it's okay," Ego assured Peter. "Just relax. Concentrate. You can do it. Bring it back."

"You can do it, Peter," Sora added. "I mean, you just did it, so you can do it again."

Peter took in their words and concentrated, bringing the blue light back over his hands.

"Yes!" Ego cheered as Peter kept staring in amazement. "Yes, now shape it." Peter faced his palms to each other and started pushing the energy into itself. "Feel that energy."

Ego and his friends watched as Peter pressed the energy together with both hands, making a small ball.

"Yes," Ego said, looking up at Peter with a jaw dropped happily. "You're home."

Peter had a wide smile on his face as he looked at Ego then back down at the ball. Sora and Vanitas smiled at their friend finally having good fortune with his blood family.

"Peter..." Ego said with a smile, holding out his hands.

Peter smiled and tossed the ball forwards, which Ego caught. Father and son smiled at each other as Ego rotated the ball in his hand before tossing it up, and Peter caught it in his hands.

"They're actually fuckin' playing catch," Vanitas laugh whispered to Sora as Ego walked down the small staircase next to them.

With wide smiles, Peter and Ego continued to throw the ball at each other, doing their own form of catch.

"So, you never mentioned this grandfather of yours before," Sora said as he and Vanitas started walking away from the father-son moment they could tell they were intruding on.

"Yeah, I guess some memories started coming back after I got back my life force," Vanitas theorized.

"Good ones, right?" Sora asked.

"Not exactly," Vanitas said. He winced. "Guy's kinda... dead."

"Oh, the cancer?" Sora asked, sympathy on his face.

"No, he shot himself in the mouth to 'rob the turtles of the satisfaction'," Vanitas said, still wincing. "Really put a damper on that Thanksgiving dinner."

Sora went wide eyed in shock at that.

"How are you not emo?" Sora asked.

"I was," Vanitas informed him. "What, you thought I was sane during that rampage?" *** _2_ ***

On the other side of the palace, Mantis and Drax sat at the top of the staircase to one of the doors, with Riku standing next to them with his arms crossed. They all stared at the sight of the slowly sinking sun in front of them, right above the landscape that even still-occasional downer Riku had to admit was beautiful.

"How did you get to this weird, dumb planet?" Drax asked Mantis.

"Yeah, with what we've seen here, you don't seem to be a native here," Riku said.

"Ego found me in my larva state," Mantis informed them. "Orphaned on my home world. He raised me by hand, and kept me as his own."

"So, you're a pet?" Drax asked.

"I suppose," Mantis said with a shrug.

"That's kind of a crude way to put it," Riku commented.

"People usually want cute pets," Drax said. "Why would Ego want such a hideous one?"

"I am hideous?" Mantis asked.

"You are horrifying to look at," Drax told her. "Yes."

 _And I thought Sora, Donald, and Goofy said stupid things_ , Riku thought as Mantis looked down.

"But that's a good thing," Drax assured Mantis.

"Oh?" Mantis asked.

"When you're ugly, and someone loves you, you know they love you for who you are," Drax assured her, looking forwards. "Beautiful people never know who to trust."

"Well, then I'm certainly grateful to be ugly," Mantis said with a smile, surprising Riku a bit. She then deflated. "Poor Gamora and Kairi. They can never trust anyone."

She looked at Drax before they looked out at the pools in front of them.

"Those pools," Drax said. "They remind me of a time when I took my daughter to the forgotten lakes of my home world. She was like you."

"Disgusting?" Mantis asked with a smile.

"Innocent," Drax corrected her, still looking out at the pools.

Mantis and Riku could hear the turmoil in the grey skinned man's voice, and Riku felt sympathy for him. And he could tell it was especially bad when Mantis placed a hand on his shoulder, her antennae glowed, and she started crying. Riku couldn't even begin to imagine the turmoil going through Drax since the man had lost both his wife and his daughter to the same asshole, according to Vanitas. He had only had that brief period of time after Destiny Islands had fallen to darkness when he knew that his parents had probably fallen with it, but at least he managed to get them back. There was no way for Drax to get his family back.

Not knowing any other way to offer his condolences, Riku sat down next to them and put a sympathetic hand on Drax's other shoulder. Drax gave a nod to the silver haired teen, before continuing to stare out at the pools.

"I have never met anyone like you," Mantis admitted to Drax. "Or your friends. You are filled with such... love. It is a thing I did not know existed. Not like this..." She breathed in shakily. "And I think... I think it may be the very finest of all things. It both... hurts and soothes the heart." *** _3_ ***

Both she and Drax sighed out as she finished that. Within moments, Mantis lowered her hand, and her antennae stopped glowing. She then quickly turned towards Drax.

"Drax?" Mantis asked, shakily. "Riku? There's something I must tell the both of you."

The doors opened behind them, and they turned to see Gamora and Kairi walk out. Gamora took one glance at Mantis, and she immediately looked down.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"This gross bug lady is my new friend," Drax said, gesturing to Mantis. "Same is this child with long, old man hair."

"Hey," Riku said. "Silver isn't always for old people."

"I'm learning many things, like I'm a pet and ugly," Mantis told the girls as she and Drax smiled.

"You're not ugly," Gamora assured Mantis before glaring at Drax. "Drax!"

"What are you talking about?" Drax asked, gesturing to Mantis.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kairi asked Drax, glaring at the older man.

"Mantis..." Gamora said, looking at the bug like woman. "Can you show us where we'll be staying?"

They all stood and Mantis started leading the others across the landscape to their sleeping quarters.

"Why are there no other beings on this planet?" Gamora asked.

"The planet is Ego," Mantis reminded her. "A dog would not invite a flea to live on his back."

"Good point," Kairi said with her head cocked to the side.

"And you're not a flea?" Gamora countered.

"I'm a flea with purpose," Mantis informed her. "I help him sleep."

Gamora then walked forwards more and looked Mantis directly in the face.

"What were you about to say to Drax and Riku before we walked out?" she asked.

Mantis paused and looked around before unconvincingly saying, "Nothing."

Riku and Kairi frowned with Gamora in thought as Mantis walked past the green skinned woman.

"Your quarters are this way," Mantis announced.

The group followed behind Mantis, all of them but Drax rightfully suspicious of what was going on with Mantis and Ego...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I hope the reactions were on par for the Disney trio. With Mickey having never encountered something like this before, I figured the horrified approach would be natural. And with Donald and Goofy being desensitized to this kinds of stuff by Vanitas, I figured Goofy having a mourning tone and Donald a vengeful one would have been in character, you know? Especially with Donald's anger issues.
> 
> *2 Like anything about Vanitas's home life from before he became a Keyblade Master would be normal
> 
> *3 Most of that deleted scene consisted of dialogue
> 
> Next up is the scene where Yondu leads the breakout out of the Ravenger ship, possibly my favorite scene in the movie. I even found a meme about it reading, "You may be cool, but you'll never be Baby Groot and Mary Poppins walking through a ship and killing 100+ Ravengers cool." Wish I could find that meme again, cause I just know I messed up some of the line


	5. Prototype Fin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kraglin helps Yondu as he leads Rocket, Groot, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey out of the Ravenger ship...

On the other side of the galaxy, the small group of Yondu, Rocket, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey were roughly thrown in the prison cell. They exclaimed as they landed on the ground, not well.

"We deliver you to the Kree in the morning," Taserface informed them.

The gates slid shut as Taserface leaned forwards better to look at Yondu better.

"Neither you nor the rabbit will last much longer after that," he added in a sinister sounding voice.

"Okay, Taserface," Rocket called out as the new Ravager leader turned away and started walking down the hallway.

Yondu, Goofy, and Mickey continued to wince on the ground as Rocket and Donald walked up to the gate.

"Hey, tell the other guys we said 'Hi,' Taserface!" Rocket called with a smile, making the man stop.

"And if you want tips in case you grow bored of that name, I can get you in touch with Launchpad!" Donald called with a smile of his own.

Taserface sighed out and looked down as he and the other Ravengers with him continued down the hallway. Gef then ran up next to Taserface and held up the birdcage with Groot within.

"What about this little plant?" Gef asked. "Can I smash it with a rock?"

"No, Gef," Taserface told him. "It's too adorable to kill. Take it to the tailor."

Back in the cell, Yondu leaned against a wall with Goofy. Mickey sat down, still pretty horrified after what they had seen in the room with the airlocks. Donald and Rocket walked away from the closed gate and towards the others.

"No offense, but your employees are a bunch of jerks," Rocket told Yondu as he and Donald sat down in front of the wall opposite of him.

"That's probably why they're 'Ravagers'," Goofy pointed out. "Have to be ruthless and stuff." *** _1_ ***

"Way too ruthless, in my opinion..." Mickey commented.

"I was a Kree battle slave for 20 years when Stakar freed me," Yondu informed them. "He offered me a place with the Ravagers. He said all I needed to do was adhere to the code. But I was young... and greedy, and stupid." He looked up at Rocket. "Like you stealing those batteries."

"That was mostly Drax," Rocket said, and Donald and Goofy raised eyebrows in skepticism.

"Me and Stakar, and the other captains..." Yondu said. "We weren't so different from you guys and your other friends. The only family I ever had. When I broke the code... they exiled me. This is what I deserve."

"Slow down, drama queen," Rocket said as he and Donald stood up. "You might deserve this, but the rest of us don't. We gotta get out of here."

"Yeah, I gotta kick V's ass for getting us in this situation," Donald added.

"Where's Quill?" Yondu asked.

"He went off with his old man," Rocket answered.

Yondu crooked his head to the side and asked, "Ego?"

"Yeah, he found us on Berhert," Mickey said.

"It's a day for dumbass names," Rocket added.

That made Donald and even Yondu laugh.

"You're smiling," Rocket told Yondu. "And for a second, I got a warm feeling. But then it was ruined by those disgusting-ass teeth."

That surprised most of the people in the cell.

"You like a professional asshole or what?" Yondu asked.

"Pretty much a pro," Rocket admitted. "Why didn't you deliver Quill to Ego like you promised?"

"He was skinny," Yondu told them. "Could fit into places we couldn't. Good for thievin'."

"Uh, huh," Rocket said with a slight nod of the head.

Donald, Goofy, and Mickey also nodded their heads as they heard Yondu's response. However, they could hear the blandness in the response, like it was something he had rehearsed for. They could tell that there was a different reason why Yondu did that, but for the life of them, they couldn't figure it out.

"Your Majesty, can't you use your Keyblade to open the gate?" Goofy asked.

Mickey stood up. He walked forwards and looked at the gate in front of them. He summoned his Keyblade and waved it around the gate, to no avail.

"We kinda got smart after we met the kid with the Keyblade," Yondu admitted. "Made all the locks automated in case we had to capture you guys."

"Great..." Donald sighed out as he stood up and summoned his staff, walking towards the gate. "Don't worry, I'll get us out of here."

"No, no, no, bad idea," Mickey said. "We've all seen what Zettaflare will do."

"Yeah, it'll blow down the door," Donald said, holding up his staff.

"It'll also blow a gigantic hole through most of the ship, which will kill us all," Mickey informed him.

Donald took in that information, and lowered his staff after a few seconds.

"Oh..." he said in slight embarrassment, dismissing the staff.

"I got an idea on how to get outta here," Yondu announced. "But we're gonna need your little friend."

They had to wait a while, but pretty soon Groot was walking sullenly down the hall and passing next to them, drenched in liquid and dressed in a tiny version of the Ravager outfit.

"Psst!" Yondu whispered to him. "Hey, twig!" Groot looked up to see all of them at the gate, looking at him. "Come here. Come on."

Groot continued his sullen walk, now walking up to the gate keeping them in the cell.

"Aw, man..." Rocket said in sympathy. "What did they do to you?"

"You smell like cheap alcohol," Donald commented.

"How do you know what cheap alcohol smells like?" Goofy asked, him and Mickey wearing expressions of curiosity.

"Not important," Donald told them, waving a hand to emphasize the point.

Groot looked up at them as Alcohol dripped off of his head.

"Hey, you wanna help us get outta here?" Yondu asked.

Groot nodded his head.

"There's something I need you to get, and bring back to me," Yondu told him. "In the captain's quarter's, there's a prototype fin..." He gestured to his head. "The thing I wore on my head. There's a drawer next to the bunk. It's in that. It's red. You got it?"

Groot nodded his head and started running down the hallway he came from. Yondu smiled at the others, who gritted their teeth.

"You do remember that he's a baby, right?" Mickey asked.

"So?" Yondu asked.

"So, babies don't tend to understand what you're saying too well," Goofy said. "I'm speakin' from personal experience."

Yondu very visibly deflated at that news. And they proved to be right when just a few minutes later, Groot returned carrying a pair of white briefs in his hands, which he proudly presented to them.

"That's my underwears," Yondu said as Rocket placed a hand on top of his head in slight embarrassment.

"Yeah, like they said, I was pretty sure he didn't know what you were talkin' about," Rocket admitted. "You have to explain it more carefully."

After a second, Yondu enunciated, "It's a prototype fin."

Groot left and returned with a tied up, shrieking Orloni in his arms, that he presented to them with pride once again.

"That's an orloni," Rocket said. "It's a fin, Groot."

"I'm having deja vu to when Maxie was just a little boy," Goofy admitted. He sighed out and looked up in nostalgia with a smile. "Ah, those were the days..."

"Didn't you fall off your roof every day?" Donald asked.

"Sometimes twice," Goofy said, the smile never wavering.

"You explain it this time," Yondu told Rocket.

"All right," Rocket said, softly.

He did his best to explain what Yondu was talking about to Groot. The little tree went off, and returned proudly holding up a prosthetic eye.

"That's Vorker's eye," Yondu said. "He takes it out when he sleeps. Go. Look again."

"But leave the eye here," Rocket said as Groot started to walk away.

"Why?" Yondu asked as he and the others looked at the raccoon in confusion.

"He's gonna wake up tomorrow..." Rocket said, laughter growing in his voice. "And he's not gonna know... where his eye is!"

He fell down in his laughter while Groot went off in search again. The rest of the group stood up and started pacing around. Within moments, Groot came back, using his extended vines trick to drag a large desk across the hall to show to them.

"That's a desk," Rocket said.

"Groot, we told you it was this big," Donald said as he and Rocket gestured with their hands to emphasize the size.

Groot disappeared again, and the taller members of the ground kneeled down to get a better look again. This time, they were a little surprised. Groot was holding up a severed human big toe in his hands, presenting it to them with the usual pride.

After a second of everyone staring at the little tree in confusion, Rocket piped up, "Tell me you guys have a refrigerator somewhere with a bunch of severed human toes."

Yondu shook his head, and joined the others in staring at Groot in discomfort.

"Okay," Rocket said. "Then let's just agree to never discuss this."

"Agreed," Donald said.

"Agreed," Mickey said.

"Yeah," Goofy said.

After Groot discarded the toe and returned to them, Yondu clipped off a piece of metal from his jacket and held it up to Groot.

"The drawer you wanna open has this symbol on it," he said, speaking his words carefully to get his point across. "Okay?"

He offered the piece to Groot, who took it in both of his hands. Groot looked at them for a second before raising the piece up with both hands and holding it over his head.

"What?" Yondu asked. "No!"

"He thinks you want him to wear it as a hat," Rocket translated the action.

"That's not what I said!" Yondu snapped.

"This is why I'm never having kids," Donald announced with crossed arms.

Yondu and Rocket frowned at the duck, glancing down between his legs and then back up at him. Donald never wore pants, so he showed his privates very clearly to everyone. But he didn't have the... parts down there. So the question had to be on their minds: how exactly is he supposed to have kids? *** _2_ ***

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Donald asked.

"No reason," Rocket quickly said.

"Never mind..." Yondu said, turning back towards Groot.

"I am Groot," Groot told them.

"He's relieved you don't want him to wear it as a hat," Rocket translated.

"I am Groot," Groot said.

"He hates hats," Rocket translated.

"I am Groot," Groot said.

"On anyone, not just himself," Rocket translated.

"Hey!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed in offense in unison. *** _3_ ***

"I am Groot," Groot said.

"One minute, you think someone has a weird shaped head, the next minute it's just because you realize part of that head is the hat," Rocket translated. He frowned at Groot. "That's why you don't like hats?"

Groot nodded his head.

"This is an important conversation right now?" Yondu asked.

Groot tried again, going into the Captain's quarters and finding the drawer with the symbol on it. He used his vines to open the drawer, revealing the fin that Yondu was talking about. Groot smiled as he reached for it, and his smile got wider as he pulled out a little circular container with bright colors on it.

"That ain't it," Kraglin announced.

Groot looked up in shock to see Kraglin staring down at him.

But then to his surprise, the Ravager lifted him up and grabbed the fin, taking them both back to the cell. Kraglin dropped the fin in the cell, where it landed in front of Yondu. The group looked up at Kraglin in consideration as he held up Groot in his hand.

"I didn't mean to do a mutiny," Kraglin said. He looked down in shame. "They killed all my friends."

After a second, Yondu told the brunette, "Get the third quadrant ready for release."

Kraglin stood up straight and patted his right fist over his heart in a solute. He dropped Groot onto one of the bars, and he turned away from them.

"One more thing," Rocket said as Groot slid down the gate to their level. Kraglin turned back to face them. "You got any clones of Quill's old music on the ship?"

That confused Kraglin, and pretty much everyone else in the jail cell. But nonetheless, once Kraglin got up to the quadrant, he set on the speaker system, and it slowly started playing Jay & The Americans' "Come a Little Bit Closer."

Two Ravagers were soon on either side of the entrance to the prison gate, and they opened it up in curiosity. The two walked inside the cell to find the group far in the back as Rocket was finishing attaching the fin to Yondu's head. The Ravagers gasped in surprise and started pulling out their blasters, but Yondu was faster with his whistle. Within seconds, the arrow flew through the wall next to them and right through the chests of the Ravagers before Yondu caught it in his hand.

"Well, that's one way to do it," Mickey commented.

The two Ravagers winced a bit as Yondu stood up and picked between his teeth with a nail, and then they fell to the ground, dead. The rest of the group started following hi through the cell, with Rocket picking up the blasters the dead Ravagers dropped.

"Let's go to work, boys," Donald announced, summoning his staff as Goofy summoned his shield, and Mickey summoned his Keyblade.

The Ravagers pretty quickly caught on to what was happening, if Taserface's voice over the loudspeaker announcing, "He's got it! Yondu's got the fin!" wasn't evidence enough.

The group exited the cell and started down the hallway with their weapons raised in preparation. Pretty soon the entire hall in front of them was full of Ravagers charging at them, but then they gasped and stopped in surprise as Yondu whistled. Yondu kept whistling, and in response the arrow kept flying very quickly through all of the Ravagers in front of them. Within seconds, the arrow had flown through all of their chests, and the men all fell to the ground, dying.

"Jeez!" Donald commented.

Yondu whistled one more time, and the arrow flew into his left hand, as Groot climbed up onto his right shoulder. Yondu used his opposite hand to push open the door in front of them, and they started walking across one of the walkways of the hanger.

"Down there!" one of the Ravagers above them yelled.

Yondu started whistling, and even though they knew it was probably unnecessary of them, Donald blasted Blizzard and Thunder, Goofy threw his shield, and Mickey shot out orbs of light from his Keyblade.

The group continued to walk pretty calmly across the walkway as things seemingly went in slow motion around them. Ravagers fell through the air all around them, dead. Groot's attention was drawn to the walkway that soon appeared above them. Specifically, the bald headed Ravager looking down at them in fear on it.

Groot used his vines to climb up onto that level and chased the man across the walkway. Yelling out in an adorable manner, the tree used his vines to make the man drop to his knees before throwing him off of the walkway, making him plummet to his death far below. Groot then just simply jumped off the ledge and landed on Rocket's shoulder.

"Even as a baby, he's pretty deadly," Goofy commented, remembering what adult Groot had done on the Dark Aster.

Yondu led them through another doorway and up a staircase into a surveillance room, giving them a clear view of all the threats coming towards them. The Kree looked directly at the screens and started whistling, sending the arrow through the walls and all around the ship, through his former subordinates' chests.

At one point, he had the arrow turn off lights in one hallway, leaving the only light the red trail of the arrow as it flew through the Ravagers' chests. At another point, he had the arrow take out the supports holding up a ship, making the ship crush all the Ravagers below it.

"Okay, now I know this universe is different to ours," Mickey commented.

"Yeah," Goofy agreed. "Didn't a train bigger than that fall on me once, and I walked away perfectly fine?"

"I think it might've been a truck," Donald commented. *** _4_ ***

At one point, the arrow flew through a glass of beer that Gef was about to drink, surprising him. Before it went around in a loop and took the Ravager out.

Rocket stepped up onto a box and watched on another monitor as a Ravager started to get closer to the door next to them. Rocket pointed one of his blasters at the door and fired. The projectile went right through the door and the Ravager's chest, killing him. Donald started helping with more Thunder going over the walls, and Mickey sent light projectiles through as well. Yondu and Rocket laughed as they kept taking out Ravagers all throughout the ship, going on for a while.

"I feel like a bad-ass!" Donald exclaimed in excitement.

"I feel like seeing my therapist once we get back home," Mickey informed Goofy.

Rocket and Yondu kept laughing as they kept killing Ravagers, but Yondu's attention was soon drawn to the screen showing Taserface walking through the hallway. Majorly pissed at the subordinate that started the mutiny and killed his most loyal soldiers, Yondu had the arrow fly through another wall and directly at him encasing it in fire for good measure.

Taserface gasped and jumped aside as the arrow came at him. He laughed wildly before watching as the arrow flew into one of the engines behind him. A large explosion then happened, encasing him in fire.

That made the smile finally disappear from Rocket's face.

"You maniac," Rocket said. "The whole ship's gonna blow."

"Gawrsh!" Goofy said in fear.

"We're gonna blow up!" Mickey exclaimed in equal fear.

To prove that point, explosions started happening all around the ship on the outside, with gigantic amounts of fire flaring brightly.

"Not the whole ship," Yondu informed him with a cocky smile.

He whistled and caught the arrow in his left hand, leading them out of the room. In the third quadrant, Kraglin walked into the console room and started up the computers, the main screen, and had the cover over the windshield open up, revealing the void of space through the glass.

Through the flames in the ship, Taserface stumbled onto the ground of one of the rooms as fire appeared on the walls all around him. He patted himself off and went to one of the screens nearby. Breathing heavily, he started up a transmission with the Sovereign.

"Who is this?" a golden skinned woman asked.

"I am sending you the coordinates for Yondu's ship," Taserface said, putting in the coordinates on the panel next to the screen. "I only ask one thing. That your High Priestess tell him the name of the man what sealed his fate. Taserface!"

The Sovereign woman stared at him with interest right up until he said his name. When she heard it, she snickered before she started to just full on laugh loudly, falling forwards as she did so. Taserface groaned at that before another explosion happened, engulfing him in fire once more and killing him.

In the third quadrant, the group prepared themselves for travel.

"Release the quadrant!" Yondu instructed.

"Aye aye, Captain!" Kraglin announced.

He walked forwards and leaned down, pulling a lever up with both hands. The entire part of the ship they were on, the third quadrant, retracted from the rest of the exploding ship. Rockets retracted on the sides and turned, propelling them forwards through the void of space.

While Kraglin stood up in front of the windshield, the rest of the group moved into the pilot seats, with Rocket using the nav computer to find the location of Ego's planet.

"Where to, Captain?" Kraglin asked.

"Ego," Rocket announced, selecting that world for their ship to start making jumps to.

"No, boy!" Yondu exclaimed.

The ship lunged forwards and started making jumps throughout various worlds and realms.

"It ain't healthy for a mammalian body to hop more than 50 jumps at a time," Yondu shakily informed Rocket.

"I know that," Rocket told him.

"We're about to do 700!" Yondu snapped, one of his eyes warping slightly.

"Rocket, you idiot!" Donald snapped.

They continued hopping from world to world, and they all screamed out as their bodies kept warping from the jumps. Mickey and Donald managed to slap Rocket on his shoulder blades before they continued yelling out, prepared for the upcoming hell they were about to face with all the world hops...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 _Now_ I figure out it's "Ravagers," and not "Ravengers"
> 
> *2 Someone had to ask that question
> 
> *3 It took me a little while to figure out the right area to place that, and I'm still not exactly sure it's in the right place
> 
> *4 Magic of cartoons, eh?


	6. Sisters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi spends time with Gamora, which turns out to be a mistake when Nebula shows back up...

A calming presence came over Ego's planet as dusk started to fall. Peter had Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me" playing from his Walkman as he and Gamora stood at the balcony to his room. Peter himself was looking out at the landscape in front of him while Gamora was trying to get a signal on her communicator. Sora, Vanitas, and Kairi were watching them from the hallway, with the boys placing another bet for if they were gonna kiss. Given how dysfunctional the two were, Vanitas was sure he was about to win some Munny again.

"So I guess this could all be mine someday," Peter assessed, looking over the gigantic stalagmites far in the distance.

Gamora ignored him and raised the communicator up.

"Rocket?" she asked. "Rocket, are you there?"

Gamora sighed out as she kept trying to get something through the communicator. With the music still playing, Peter swayed over to her and placed his arms around her, hardly fazing her.

"What are you doing, Peter?" Gamora asked.

Peter stepped around her and kept his soft expression as he requested, "Dance with me."

"I'm not going to dance with you," Gamora told him.

"This is Sam Cooke," Peter said, taking the communicator and placing it on the chair next to them. "One of the greatest Earth singers of all time."

Peter led Gamora to the center of the balcony, and she reluctantly agreed to start dancing with him. Peter kept his soft expression as they started their slow dance, while Gamora stayed stoic. At least for a few seconds. After a little bit, she grew into it, even agreeing into doing the spin. Gamora smiled as she got close to Peter again, and they kept swaying to the music.

"Drax thinks you're not a dancer," Peter told Gamora.

"If you ever tell anyone about this, I will kill you," Gamora told him.

With that, Vanitas pulled a disposable camera out of his bag and took a picture of them from across the room.

"You just got your life force back, and you already wanna get yourself killed?" Kairi reprimanded him.

"When are we gonna do something about this unspoken thing between us?" Peter asked Gamora.

"What unspoken thing?" Gamora asked, that even Vanitas and Sora could hear bullshit in.

"This..." Peter said. " _Cheers_ , Sam and Diane, a guy and a girl on a TV show who dig each other, but never say it because if they do, the ratings would go down..."

"There's no unspoken thing," Gamora told him.

"Well, it's a catch-22, because if you said it, then it would be spoken, and you would be a liar," Peter commented. "So, by not saying it... you are telling the truth, and admitting that there is."

' _Like you two morons,_ ' Vanitas thought, looking over his shoulder at Sora and Kairi.

"No, that's not what I..." Gamora started before giving up.

She sighed out as she stepped away from Peter.

"What we should be discussing right now is something about this place," Gamora informed him as she walked to the chair and picked up her communicator. "It doesn't feel right."

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked as they walked back into the room. (In the hallway, Sora sighed out as he gave Vanitas his 100 Munny.) "You're the one who wanted me to come here!"

"That girl Mantis, she's afraid of something," Gamora told him as she walked up to the small table with chairs surrounding it, sitting in one of the chairs.

"Why are you trying to take this away from me?" Peter asked, sounding legitimately offended.

"I'm not trying..." Gamora started to say.

"He's my father," Peter told her. "He's blood."

"You have blood on Earth and you never wanted to return there," Gamora rebutted, digging through the bag next to her.

"That's actually a good point," Sora muttered to Vanitas and Kairi.

"Again, you made me come here!" Peter exclaimed. "And Earth, Earth is the place where my mother died in front of me."

"No, it's because that place is real, and this is a fantasy," Gamora rebutted, standing up and walking across the room.

"This is real!" Peter snapped. "I'm only half human, remember?"

"That's the half I'm worried about," Gamora said, digging through a bag on the bed.

"Oh, I get it," Peter said. Gamora walked away from the bed. "You're jealous, because I'm part-God, and you like when I'm the weak one."

"These two have chemistry?" Kairi muttered to the doppelgängers as they watched the exchange.

"You were insufferable to begin with," Gamora told Peter. She looked down at her communicator. "I haven't been able to reach Rocket. I'm gonna go outside, and I'm gonna try to get a signal."

"You know what?" Peter asked, angry. "This is not _Cheers_ after all! This is whatever the show is where one person is willing to open themselves up to a new possibility..." Gamora started walking past him to the door, looking down at her communicator. "And the other person is a jerk, who doesn't trust anybody! It's a show that doesn't exist!"

Gamora reached the doorway as Peter finished with, "That's why it would get zero ratings!"

"I don't know what Cheers is!" Gamora snapped, walking back up to Peter.

"She's not missing out on much," Vanitas muttered. "I honestly don't see why my mom loved that show so much."

"I finally found my family," Peter snapped at Gamora. "Don't you understand that?"

Gamora didn't try to hide the hurt in her voice as she said, "I thought you already had."

Gamora turned away from Peter and walked into the hallway, passing the trio in the hall and going down the hall. Peter watched her go with some sadness, but that sadness turned to surprise at the sight of Sora, Vanitas, and Kairi in the hall.

"What is it with you guys and making bets off of us!?" he asked, kinda angry.

"That's kinda the point of having friends," Kairi told him. She looked at Sora and Vanitas. "I'll go with her and check to see if she's okay."

"All right, we'll stick with Peter," Sora said, watching her go with some sadness.

Peter smirked, because the unspoken thing between the two of them was much more obvious than the one between him and Gamora.

"Wait a minute..." Vanitas said in thought, sounding suspicious. Sora and Peter looked at him. "I forgot to stuff a grenade into Mansex's pocket! Aw, man, I did that once to that Lunatic and wanted to do it in one more Organization fight, particularly him. Man, I can't believe I forgot to do that!" *** _1_ ***

While Sora contemplated that with Vanitas, Kairi followed Gamora out of the palace like area and into the field outside. Kairi was a little afraid to try to start a conversation with the green skinned woman due to the fact that according to V, she was a highly trained killer.

They walked out into the field, and Gamora sighed out as she sat down. Kairi's fear grew to be justified when some of the flowers next to them shook a bunch in the wind, rattling, and Gamora slashed them in half with her sword. Kairi held up her hands in surrender as Gamora retracted it again and reattached it to her belt.

Gamora sighed out and whispered, "Damn it."

"This is why I'm hesitant to start a conversation," Kairi commented.

"Sorry," Gamora said, looking down. "It's just... I don't know why he makes me so mad sometimes."

"Maybe it's because... you're afraid of admitting he's right?" Kairi suggested.

"What?" Gamora asked, looking up at the younger girl.

"V told me your story," Kairi informed her. "Thanos attacked your world and took out everyone you knew, including your family. They were torn right out of your hands and slaughtered by a fucking madman."

Gamora was surprised at the girl's language, simultaneously going wide eyed and raising an eyebrow.

"When you spend so much time around V, you grow used to it," Kairi admitted. "But like I was saying, the people that you cared about were just, slaughtered mercilessly. I think, that you're afraid of admitting he's right about you caring about him like that for two reasons. One, because after spending so much time doing Thanos's bidding and killing people, you don't feel like you deserve to care for anyone like that. And two, because the last time you really cared for someone that much, they ended up... dead." *** _2_ ***

Gamora took in Kairi's words and looked down in consideration. However, both of their attentions were soon drawn to the far sounds of a ship entering the atmosphere. The two stood up and looked back to see a ship similarly designed to the _Milano_ flying lower and lower to the ground. They furrowed their eyebrows in thought, before their eyes widened.

"That's not Donald, Goofy, or Mickey," Kairi announced.

"And it's definitely not Rocket," Gamora added as the ship started flying quickly towards them.

Kairi pulled out her Beretta and fired up at the ship as it got closer. The two started running further down the field as the ship fired at them, with the blasts from the ship causing big blasts in the dirt. They kept running while the ship got closer to the ground behind them. Luckily, a small cliff got closer. Kairi and Gamora jumped off of it and landed in the red sand below, while the ship rammed through the ground of the cliff above them before it kept flying.

"Psychopath!" Gamora exclaimed, looking up at the ship.

"I hate your sister," Kairi informed her.

The ship turned in an arc and started firing at the two women again, so they ran across the large cliff wall next to them to the cave entrance nearby. Kairi fired her Beretta a couple of more times as they ran along the ground, dodging the blasts from the ship. They ran into the entrance of the cave and did their best to catch their breath as Nebula piloted the ship past the entrance. Of course, they soon had to start running again as it came around in an arc again and started flying towards them.

"Oh, come _on_!" Kairi complained as they ran further into the cave, dodging the gunfire.

Luckily, when Nebula flew her ship into the cave, it was a little narrow for the ship and its wings. Kairi and Gamora kept running to dodge the fire from the ship's guns, while Nebula continued to yell out in rage to try to get them. The two women jumped down another cliff in the cave, landing in dirt again. Nebula had piloted her ship against the ground again, and all the damage caused from the cave sent a large blaster next to the two women.

Nebula's ship then ended up crashing in the back of the cave in front of them, facing them and catching fire. Gamora exclaimed as she picked up the gun with both hands and messed with some wires.

"Isn't that a little much?" Kairi asked. "She's already kinda..."

Gamora cut her off by activating the large blaster. The barrels spun in preparation before they started firing out their gunfire. Gamora yelled out as the guns fired out, causing more explosions around the ship that made the ground below it give out, making the wrecked ship fall deeper into the ground.

Gamora dropped the huge gun, and she and Kairi walked to the edge of the cave ground and looked down to see the still burning ship below them. They could tell that Nebula was struggling to escape, so Gamora climbed down and entered the ruined ship, helping her adopted sister out of the ship. Just in time for the ship to blow up and send them flying back.

Kairi managed to climb down and met the two sisters as they groaned in pain from the explosion. She even winced as Nebula's cybernetic parts re-adjusted themselves back to normal. Gamora and Nebula looked at each other before Nebula yelled out and tackled Gamora to the ground. She straddled her sister and placed her hands around Gamora's neck.

"Are you kidding me!?" Gamora exclaimed.

Kairi raised her Beretta and fired a shot, which just deflected off of one of Nebula's cybernetic body parts.

"Wow, tough metal," Kairi commented.

Gamora managed to elbow one of Nebula's arms, and managed to flip them around so she was holding her sister down. Nebula then gripped Gamora's arms and forced her off. The two twirled away from each other before trying to combat each other. Nebula knocked Gamora down and grabbed her sister's knife from her belt. She then grabbed Gamora by the neck and held her up, raising the knife in warning.

Kairi raised her gun to Nebula's head while the adoptive sisters gasped at each other, with Gamora slowly losing breath from the grip on her neck. Nebula then tossed her away, also throwing the knife to the ground. Gamora coughed from the choking that had been happening.

"I win," Nebula told Gamora while Kairi slipped a fresh clip into her Beretta. "I win. I bested you in combat."

"No," Gamora corrected her. "I saved your life."

"Well, you were stupid enough to let me live," Nebula countered.

"How screwed up in the head are you?" Kairi asked. "If you guys are sisters, of course she's gonna try to save you."

"And you let me live!" Gamora added.

"I don't need you always trying to beat me!" Nebula snapped.

"I'm not the one who just flew across the universe just because I wanted to win," Gamora rebutted.

"Do not tell me what I want," Nebula snapped.

"I don't need to tell you what you want!" Gamora countered. "It's obvious!"

"You were the one who wanted to win," Nebula snapped. "And I just wanted a sister!"

The atmosphere changed with that comment. The hatred that the adoptive sisters had at each other faded, and even Kairi stopped being angry at Nebula. Kairi lowered her handgun while Nebula looked down.

"You were all I had," Nebula told Gamora. "But you were the one who needed to win." She looked at Gamora. "Thanos pulled my eye from my head, and my brain from my skull, and my arm from my body... because of you."

Kairi said nothing as she looked down, sliding her Beretta into the holster. Hearing the trauma that had happened to the woman directly from her was much different from hearing it from Vanitas. It just added to the anger she felt towards Thanos. She sighed out as she looked at Gamora and Nebula, who had both had their lives torn apart by the man. She nodded in determination while the sisters kept looking down, contemplating their situations... *** _3_ ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I remember having V do that during the battle against Saix in the Days story, and I did want to do that during any of the other Organization battles, particularly one of the Xemnas battles. I didn't even realize until after the story was over that I forgot all about the grenades. Come to think of it, I forgot about normal grenades during the entire story, just doing the launchers...
> 
> *2 I felt that Kairi would be a good voice of reason with this stuff, partly 'cause of the feelings for Sora that she's still not admitting to, partly 'cause she's also seen some shit by the end of the second game. They really did limit her potential in the third game
> 
> *3 As you can expect from what I've been doing, Kairi will be just as determined to take on Thanos with the others when we reach the Endgame story


	7. Aquatic Hallucinations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ego makes his move on Peter, while the others on the world catch up on information, and the rest catches up to the world...

Pretty soon, nighttime had fallen on Ego's world, leaving most of the palace now lit by the moonlight glaring in the distance. Peter was in the room provided by him, playing Looking Glass' "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" from his Walkman. He was laying down on one of the chairs in front of the table, looking at the small dimly lit lantern above him. At the end of the hallway, Vanitas and Sora hid behind pillars as they went up to the corner, watching as Ego walked to the doorway and looked in the room at his son.

"Are you sure this is something we should be doing?" Sora asked Vanitas with slight uncertainty.

"We're not as dumb as Peter can be," Vanitas informed him. He paused. "Well, I'm not most of the time. But still, when Gamora has a bad feeling, then that means we should probably be suspicious, too. So let's keep watch."

They watched as Ego stood in the doorway and looked at Peter.

"You all right, son?" he asked. They watched as he walked into the room. "I saw your girl stomp off a little earlier in quite a huff."

"Yeah," they heard Peter sigh out.

"It's fortuitous, you listening to this song," Ego said as the boys got closer to the door to hear the conversation better.

"You know..." Peter started to ask.

"Brandy?" Ego interrupted. "By Looking Glass?" He chuckled, "A favorite of your mom's."

"Yeah, it was," Peter softly said.

"One of Earth's greatest musical compositions," Ego said. "Perhaps its very greatest.

"To each opinion is their own," Vanitas muttered.

"Yes!" they heard Peter agree with his father.

"Peter, you and I, we're the sailor in that song," Ego told Peter. " _He came from a summer's day. Bringing gifts from far away_. Like the child I put in your mother, or the freedom you brought Gamora... _Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good wife you would be. My life, my love. My lady is the sea_. The sea calls the sailor back. He loves the girl, but that's not his place. The sea calls upon him as history calls upon great men. And sometimes we are deprived the pleasures of mortals."

"Bullshit," Vanitas muttered to Sora. "Gods fall in love and have babies with mortals all the time. Look at the Greek gods. Especially Zeus."

He chuckled as he remembered seeing a meme on Earth, joking about how most of the problems in Greek Mythology were caused by Zeus not keeping it in his pants. *** _1_ ***

"Well, you may not be mortal, but me..." Peter started to rebut to Ego.

"No, Peter," Ego interrupted. "Death will remain a stranger to both of us, as long as the light burns within the planet."

"I'm immortal?" Peter asked.

"Mm-hmm," Ego hummed.

"Really?" Peter asked.

"Yes!" Ego assured him. "As long as the light exists."

"Peter sticking around forever..." Sora muttered in a grave voice.

"Oh, god, the universe won't survive," Vanitas commented in a similar voice.

"And I can use the lights to build cool things, like how you made this whole planet?" Peter asked.

"It might take you a few million years of practice," Ego said with a chuckle. "Before you get really good at it. But, yes!"

Peter laughed as he exclaimed, "What!"

He laughed again.

"Get ready for an 800 foot statue of Pac-Man with Skeletor and Heather Locklear," Peter informed Ego.

"You can do anything you want," Ego told him.

"I'm gonna make some weird shit," Peter promised in thought of what to build.

"But you know, Peter, it is a tremendous responsibility," Ego told him. "Only we can remake the universe. Only we can take the bridle of the cosmos and lead it to where it needs to go."

"How?" Peter asked.

From their positions in the hallway, Sora and Vanitas heard the sound of lights starting, and soon saw little forms of light peeking out the door.

"Come with me," Ego requested.

In another hallway, Mantis watched the exchange between father and son directly, breathing in and out as she watched them walk out of the room. Sora and Vanitas continued followed Peter and Ego through the halls while Mantis went to wake up Drax. She found him snoring in his bed and ran up to him.

"Drax, Drax," Mantis said, pushing his chest to wake him up. "Drax! Drax! We need to talk."

"I'm sorry," Drax said in a reasoning voice as Mantis stood back and looked at him. "But I like a woman with some meat on her bones."

"What?" Mantis asked, confused.

"I tried to let you down easily by telling you I found you disgusting," Drax told her.

"No, that's not what I..." Mantis started to say before Drax started gagging and retching. "What are you doing?"

"I'm imagining being with you physically," Drax said, covering his mouth as he tried not to throw up.

"Drax, that's not..." Mantis started as Drax kept gagging. "I don't like you like that. I don't even like the type of thing you are."

"Hey!" Drax exclaimed, offended. "There's no need to get personal."

"Listen!" Mantis exclaimed. "Ego's gotten exactly what he wanted. I should have told you earlier. I'm stupid. You are in danger."

They went to get up Riku next, who they found sleeping in his room with a wide smile on his face. Which was the last thing they expected from him.

"Riku, Riku," Mantis said, pushing on his chest.

"Mmm..." Riku hummed in his sleep, sounding a little too happy to Drax. "Naminé..."

Riku opened his eyes a bit, and Drax slammed his fists down on the bed and looked at Riku right in the eye, exclaiming, "Riku!"

Riku exclaimed in fright as he rolled away, falling right off of the bed. He breathed in and out heavily as he stood up and looked at them.

"What the hell is going on?" Riku asked.

"You are in danger," Mantis told him. "I came to tell you what I should have told you and Drax earlier."

"We found you having an aquatic hallucination about someone named Naminé," Drax finished.

Riku frowned.

"A _what?_ " he asked.

"Quill told me he used to have them about someone called Alyssa Milano," Drax said, scrunching his eyebrows in thought. "A damp vision. No, that's not it... Uh, a moist fantasy?"

Riku went wide eyed in realization. He gulped and asked, "A wet dream?"

"Yes!" Drax exclaimed, pointing at Riku. "You were having a wet dream about this Naminé!"

Riku walked around the bed and leaned in close to the both of them, holding up his hands.

"Listen to me," he said, gesturing strongly with his hands. "Tell no one about that part. I am _begging_ you."

"Okay," Drax and Mantis said in unison. *** _2_ ***

At the same time this was happening, Kairi, Gamora, and Nebula had recovered from the explosion and were going further in the cave to try to find a way out, panting along the way. Soon, their attentions were drawn to a white light deeper in the cave obscuring their views of what was inside it.

"What is that?" Gamora asked.

"How should we know?" Kairi asked.

"Princess has a point; we've never been to this world before," Nebula pointed out, gesturing to Kairi.

With no other options, the trio walked right towards the light, sure that they were prepared for whatever they would find.

Back on the surface, Sora and Vanitas managed to be stealthy enough to follow Peter and Ego back to the palace, hiding around any nooks and crannies they could find to avoid being seen.

"Now, you need to readjust the way you process life," Ego told Peter as he led the way back into the room with the large white spheres. "Everything around us, including the girl, everything is temporary. We are forever."

"Doesn't eternity get boring?" Peter asked as they walked past the spheres Ego had shown them before, with Sora and Vanitas still sneaking their way in.

"Not if you have a purpose, Peter," Ego said with a pointed finger. "Which is why you're here."

Vanitas and Sora frowned as they took in Ego's words as well. Ego walked Peter over to the sphere showcasing the younger him encountering the little girl with the stuffed bear.

"I told you how all those years ago, I had an unceasing impulse to find life," he told Peter. "But what I did not tell you was how, when I finally found it, it was all so..." He trailed off as they looked up at the sphere as he gestured to it. "Disappointing."

Sora, Vanitas, and even Peter narrowed their eyes at Ego in confusion.

"And that is when I came to a profound realization," Ego said was he walked up to Peter, gesturing with his arms to emphasize his point. He then started walking around Peter as he continued, "My innate desire to seek out other life was not so that I could walk among that life."

Ego stopped in front of his son and looked at him in his confused eyes.

"Peter, I have found meaning," he said.

Ego then raised a hand up to Peter's head and pressed a finger in the middle of his forehead. Sora and Vanitas watched in confusion as Peter raised his head and looked up, gasping. Vanitas could slightly see the older man's eyes were glazed over with colors similar to a star system.

Peter winced a couple of times before saying, "I see it. Eternity!"

At the same time, Gamora, Kairi, and Nebula had reached the end of the cave, and found that they were wrong when they were sure they were prepared for what they would find.

"Oh, my god," Gamora whispered in shocked disbelief.

"Holy shit," Kairi whispered in equal disbelief.

The cave wall in front of them was littered with so many bones that they had a hard time seeing the wall or ground. Possibly hundreds of skulls of differentiating alien species were all around them, as with the many other bones of all different shapes and sizes.

"We need to get off this planet," was all Nebula told them, slightly shocked in her own manner.

* * *

At the same time this was going on, the group that had escaped from the Ravagers were still making dozens of hops between worlds, screaming out shamelessly like babies as they jumped from world to world. Which was actually to be expected as their bodies were still warping in unusual ways as they kept jumping.

At one point, they jumped onto one world, briefly passing over an old man in a spacesuit talking with some Watchers.

"Hey, Stan Lee!" Mickey yelled out before he kept screaming with the others as they jumped to the next universe.

"Oh, Mickey," Stan Lee said. "What a nice mouse." He looked up at the Watchers standing around him. "Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted... At that time, I was a security guard for the Smithsonian..." *** _3_ ***

Pretty soon, the ship stopped making hops and parked itself outside of Ego's world. Mickey, Yondu, Donald, Rocket, and Goofy all fell out of their seats, groaning as they hit the floor. Groot just simply opened his mouth and dropped the throw up in his lap. The rest of the group slowly managed to get up onto their hands and knees, wincing along the way.

"What the hell are you doing, boy?" Yondu snapped at Rocket.

"I could tell by how you talked about him this Ego is bad news," Rocket said, breathing in and out. "We're here to save Quill."

"For what?" Yondu asked. "Huh? For honor? For love?"

"No," Rocket denied as Kraglin pushed himself to his feet nearby. "I don't care about those things. I wanna save Quill so I can prove I'm better than him! I can lord this over him forever."

"That's seriously where your mind goes when your friends are in danger?" Mickey asked, annoyed. "You are officially never allowed at Disney Town."

"I'll live," Rocket told Mickey.

Yondu laughed at Rocket's words as he stood up.

"What are you laughing at me for?" Rocket asked in confusion.

"You can fool yourself and everyone else, but you can't fool me," Yondu said, walking towards the window in front of them. "I know who you are."

"You don't know anything about me, loser," Rocket denied, standing and looking right at Yondu.

"I know everything about you," Yondu countered, looking back at Rocket. "I know you play like you're the meanest and the hardest, but, actually, you're the most scared of all."

"Shut up!" Rocket snapped.

Yondu continued, "I know you steal batteries you don't need, and you push away anyone who's willing to put up with you because just a little bit of love reminds you how big and that hole inside you actually is."

"Wow, he's more incentive than I expected," Donald muttered to Mickey and Goofy.

"I said shut up!" Rocket snapped.

"I know them scientists what made you, never gave a rat's ass about you," Yondu continued.

"I'm serious, dude!" Rocket insisted.

"Just like my own damn parents who sold me, their little baby, into slavery," Yondu continued.

"Jesus!" Goofy whispered to Mickey and Donald as all three of them winced.

"I know who you are, boy," Yondu said, leaning down to look at the now sad looking Rocket better. "Because you're me."

The two stared at each other in contemplation.

"...What kind of a pair are we?" Rocket finally softly asked Yondu.

"The kind that's about to go fight a planet, I reckon," Yondu said, turning away and walking to the monitor Kraglin was standing next to.

"All right, okay!" Rocket cheered as Yondu pushed a switch. "Good. Wait. Fight a what?"

Even Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were confused by his words, and they encountered living steamboat whistles on their worlds.

* * *

Back on the surface in the main room of the palace, Sora and Vanitas continued to watch as Ego raised up his hand and make the projections of other planets appear in the air around them, presenting them to the still glazed over eyed Peter. All of the planets had a bit of blue light somewhere on them, representing the light of Ego.

"I call it the Expansion," Ego explained. "It is my purpose, and now it is yours as well."

"It's beautiful," Peter softly said, looking up at the projections of the planets.

Another sphere rose up in the air, giving a clear view of the younger Ego to father and son, and Sora and Vanitas in their hiding spots.

"Over thousands of years, I implanted thousands of extensions of myself on thousands of worlds," Ego explained as the younger Ego did exactly that in the sphere. "I need to fulfill life's one true purpose. To grow and spread..." The lights then grew on the worlds and started to cover the planets. "Covering all that exists until everything is... me!"

Sora and Vanitas had to whisper their exclaims of disgust.

"I only had one problem," Ego admitted. "A single Celestial doesn't have enough power for such an enterprise. But two Celestials..." He stood next to Peter. "Well, now, that just might do."

Peter looked at Ego with his still glazed over eyes.

"Out of all my labors, the most beguiling was attempting to graft my DNA with that of another species," Ego admitted.

Next to them, a sphere showed multiple forms of the younger Ego making out with multiple different women of multiple different species. With each shift of the sphere, more and more Egos and different alien women appeared, until the inside of the sphere was completely encased with Egos and alien women they were making out with.

"I hoped the result of such a coupling would be enough to power the Expansion," Ego continued. "I had Yondu deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously, and to ease his conscious, I said I'd never hurt them. I mean, that was true. They never felt a thing. But one after the other, they failed me. Not one of them carried the Celestial genes. Until you, Peter."

As Peter looked up at Ego, the man continued, "Out of all my spawn, only you carried the connection to the light."

"What the fuck?" Sora whispered. "That is the sickest reason I have ever heard to have kids." *** _4_ ***

"This is so messed up, I'm not even gonna focus on the fact that you just said that," Vanitas admitted. "You get a free pass."

While Ego went on his Bad Guy monologue, Yondu led Rocket, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the Ravager suit-less Groot to the ship in the hanger they were gonna take down to the planet.

At the same time all that happened, Kairi, Gamora, and Nebula got back above ground and went into the palace. Not willing to listen to reason, Gamora led the way to the room where Mantis was filling Drax and Riku in on everything. She yelled out as she grabbed Mantis by the neck and pressed her up against the wall. Mantis exclaimed and grabbed onto Gamora's arm to try to lesson the pain.

"Who are you people?" Gamora demanded. "What is this place?"

"Gamora, let her go!" Drax snapped.

"If this is how you solve all your problems, I see why you're such a dysfunctional group!" Riku commented.

"Gamora..." Kairi started to say in a reasonable voice.

"The bodies in the caverns," Gamora told Mantis. "Who are they?"

Mantis looked at Gamora, and the tops of her antennae glowed.

"You are scared," she assessed.

Gamora went wide eyed in fear and dropped Mantis to the ground. The bug like woman coughed as she tried to get back her breath while Gamora backed away from her.

"What did she do to me?" Gamora practically cried out.

"She translated your own emotions," Kairi said. "Remember? That's what she does?"

"She already told us everything," Drax told Gamora.

"And V thought _he_ had daddy issues," Riku commented.

Gamora looked from the boys to Mantis as she stood up, covering her chest with her arms.

"The bodies... are his children," Mantis told them.

That somehow shocked Gamora and Kairi more than they already were.

"We need to find Peter and the others now, and get off this damn planet," Gamora announced.

"Ego will have won him to his side by now," Mantis told her. "He has a way."

"Then we just go," Nebula blandly said.

"No!" Gamora denied. "He's our friend."

"And we're not leaving behind Sora," Kairi told Nebula.

"Or V," Riku added.

"All any of you do is yell at each other," Nebula reminded them. "You are not friends."

"You're right," Drax told her. He looked at Gamora and Kairi. "We're family." He looked at Mantis and Riku. "We leave no one behind." He looked at Nebula. "Except maybe you."

"Oh, my god..." Nebula sighed out, looking down and shaking her head with her eyes closed.

Things really weren't going the way she had planned them to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I found a meme like that, with it being a pie chart, and most of the circle colored in with that section. It's funny 'cause it's true
> 
> *2 Obviously, they're gonna forget that at some point
> 
> *3 I felt it would be a nice in universe thing that Mickey and Stan Lee knew each other. Also, I saw on the Wiki that James Gunn admitted that he didn't realize the mistake of having Stan Lee say he was a FedEx worker until after they finished the movie, since this one takes place before Civil War. He admitted he made a mistake with that, so I decided to adjust for that in the story
> 
> *4 I'm pretty sure something like that would even get happy-go-lucky Sora to drop the F-bomb. Still debating on if it'll happen in future Marvel stories, though


	8. Tape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the truth now out, the group takes on Ego, along with a surprise return enemy...

"So now that we know the truth, how come we're not attacking yet?" Sora muttered to Vanitas as they watched Ego and Peter, with Peter still looking around with glazed eyes.

"Look at Quill," Vanitas said, gesturing to their friend, Uzi 9mm in his hands. "With how his pappy's explained all that shit to him, and the way his eyes are still glazed over, how can we tell if we try to attack Ego, he won't fight with him against us? We need to try to see if there's a way to break him out."

Sora nodded in understanding agreement and the two looked at father and son again.

"For the first time in my existence, I am truly not alone!" Ego exclaimed in delight as he looked up.

He looked back down at Peter to see him looking down in sadness. Curious, Ego looked at Ego with furrowed eyebrows.

"What is it, son?" Ego asked.

Peter looked up at his father and softly said, "My friends."

"You see, that's the mortal in you, Peter," Ego said, gesturing with his hands.

"Yes," Peter softly said with a nod.

"We are beyond such things," Ego said, stepping back a bit.

"Yes," Peter softly said again.

Ego turned away from Peter and started to say," Now..."

"But my mother," Peter interrupted, getting Ego's attention again. "You said you loved my mother."

"And that I did," Ego admitted. "My river lily who knew all the words to every song that came over the radio." He looked up in nostalgia. "I returned to Earth to see her three times. And I knew if I returned a fourth, I'd never leave. The Expansion... the reason for my very existence, would be over. So, I did what I had to do. But... it broke my heart to put that tumor in her head."

Sora and Vanitass eyes widened at his words. And, even though they couldn't see it, that was enough to break Peter out of his trance, and even remove the glaze over his eyes.

"What?" Peter asked.

"Now, all right," Ego said with a small smile as he looked at Peter and gestured with his hands in an attempt-to-be-understanding manner. "I know that sounds bad."

Peter interrupted his father by pulling out his blasters and started firing. Ego exclaimed as each blast hit him and blasted off a piece of his body, leaving behind bits of blue light. Once Peter stopped firing, most of Ego's torso, half of his head, bits of his legs, and even his entire left arm was gone, leaving behind the blue light.

"Who in the hell do you think you are?" Ego snapped.

"You killed my mother!" Peter bellowed.

"I tried so hard... to find the form..." Ego said as he changed his form into David Hasselhoff, confusing Sora and Vanitas a bit. Ego continued in David Hasselhoff's voice, "That best suited you, and this is the thanks I get?" During his next words, Ego changed his form back to how it was before. "You really need to grow up."

"Now?" Sora muttered to Vanitas.

"Now," Vanitas confirmed, cocking his Uzi.

"Trust me, that's overrated," Vanitas announced as they walked into view.

Vanitas aimed his Uzi at Ego while Sora summoned his Keyblade and stood in his stance.

Ego chuckled, "Big headed weaklings."

"Good luck, man!" Vanitas laughed. "I can't die!"

Sora frowned, then muttered to Vanitas, "You have your life force back. Remember?"

Vanitas then looked up in remembrance.

"Oh, yeah..." he muttered, then winced. "Oh, in that case, this might not end well.

He was right. It wouldn't.

Ego then gestured with his hand to the ground, and three large tentacles of light burst through the floor, one behind Peter, one behind Vanitas, and one behind Sora. The tentacles got closer to them. Peter watched in shock, Sora swung at one and his Keyblade deflected off of it, and Vanitas fired right at Ego, to no avail. The three then exclaimed as the tentacles went right threw them, Peter's lifting him up, and Sora and Vanitas' pressing them to the ground, their weapons skittering to the side.

"Ah!" Vanitas exclaimed. "I made these robes bullet and blade proof. Didn't think I'd have to make them lightsaber and tentacle proof." He and Sora yelled out in pain.

"I wanted to do this together," Ego angrily exclaimed at Peter. "But I suppose you'll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a battery!"

"Should've known James Gunn'd make Kurt Russel the bad guy," Vanitas quipped with a wince. "He's like Mac if he got Thing-ified and ended up getting Slenderman tentacles!" *** _1_ ***

On the other side of the palace, where they could see the light blaring in the room Ego had tackled the other three in, Gamora's transmitter finally went off.

"Finally!" Gamora exclaimed, raising up the device. "Rocket?"

" _Keep that transmitter nearby, so I can find you_ ," Rocket explained as he, Donald, Goofy, Groot, and Mickey got into their positions on the ship with Yondu. " _We're in an old piece of construction equipment Yondu once used to slice open the Bank of A'askavaria_."

"Ego's unhinged," Gamora told him as she followed the others out into the hallway.

" _I know, get ready_ ," Rocket informed her.

"Drop her, Kraglin," Yondu instructed into his own transmitter as he and Mickey walked to the pilots seats. "You know how to fly one of these?"

"Not really, but I'm a quick learner," Mickey admitted.

Kraglin dejected the smaller ship from the larger one, and they piloted it down to the planet of Ego, the red landscape of the world now forming a frowning face that made the Disney trio nervous.

Back in the palace, Ego walked up to Peter, who was still held up in the air while Sora and Vanitas were forced to the floor. While they exclaimed in pain to try to get out, Ego walked up to his son and plucked the Walkman from his belt.

"No," Peter weakly denied.

Ego looked down at the Walkman in remembrance and pressed the "play" button, making it start playing "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" again. A tear actually fell down Peter's cheek as he looked down at it, thinking of his mom.

" _My life, my love, my lady is the sea_ ," Ego said, looking up at Peter. "Peter, _this_ is the sea."

Ego then gripped his hand into a fist, breaking the Walkman up into irreparable pieces that fell to the ground.

"Oh..." Peter weakly said in sadness.

He then yelled out in pain as the tentacle lifted him up a bit, making a similar light fly out of his eyes and mouth. Light then trailed through the tentacle and into Ego, lighting up the entire room and blinding Sora and Vanitas a bit, as well as the rest of their friends who were running towards the palace outside. Vanitas gripped his head as he saw the light travel down through the planet to the core, activating the Expansion.

It then shifted to show that bit of Ego that he mentioned he left on Earth activating, causing a part of him to burst through the ground and crush a Dairy Queen, soon covering parts of Missouri as people ran from it in fear.

He was drawn from his vision as the nearby doors were kicked open by Drax, who ran in with the others, Riku holding his Keyblade and Kairi raising her handgun. Ego looked at them in surprise, but then his attention was drawn to the window behind him as he looked up to see the ship Yondu and Mickey were piloting flying right towards the palace, right through the giant window.

"Hey, there, jackass!" Yondu bellowed in greeting.

"Oh, boy!" Mickey exclaimed in fear, covering his eyes.

Yondu slammed the ship right down onto Ego, crushing him. This also made the tentacles disappear, dropping Peter right to the ground with a grunt. Vanitas also briefly saw back on Earth as the Expansion halted, stopping the parts of Ego from crushing more of Missouri.

The group rushed further into the room, with Gamora, Riku, and Kairi running towards Sora, Peter, and Vanitas, and the others running towards the ship. The door slid open to reveal Groot and Goofy waving at them.

"Howdy, y'all!" Goofy greeted.

"Out of the way, dumber, smaller Groot!" Drax exclaimed as he, Mantis, and Nebula reached the ship. "You, too, idiotic Captain canine!"

They started climbing into the ship, with Groot exclaiming as he punched and kicked Drax in his much larger arms.

On the other side of the room, Gamora helped Peter stand up, Kairi helped Sora stand up, and Riku helped Vanitas stand up. Even though he was injured, Kairi didn't hesitate to punch Vanitas in the arm.

"We're in this mess because of you!" she angrily snapped at him as she carried Sora with her arms wrapped tightly around him.

"So I made a mistake," Vanitas rationalized, picking up his Uzi before Riku helped him to the ship. "Besides, I didn't put a gun to your head and make you come along."

"He's right, he offered it to you," Riku pointed out.

"Shut up!" Kairi snapped, helping Sora to the ship. "I'm a little mad to listen to reason right now!"

"I think it's just 'cause Sora got hurt," Riku muttered to Vanitas.

"Obviously," Vanitas muttered back. "'Cause he's gotten worse than that and just walked it off after a Hi-Potion or Curaga."

The two friends laughed as Gamora helped Peter behind them, in a slightly similar mood to Kairi.

"I told you something didn't feel right," she snapped to Peter.

"'I told you so'," Peter commented, woozily. "Just what I need to hear right now."

"Well, I came back, didn't I?" Gamora asked him, while a piece of ceiling fell to the ground behind them.

"Because there's an unspoken thing," Peter pointed out.

"There is no unspoken thing," Gamora loudly denied that even Sora could tell was bullshit.

"What are you doing?" Drax snapped at Rocket and Donald in the ship. "You could have killed us all!"

"Uh, 'Thank you, Rocket and Donald'?" Rocket asked.

"So ungrateful," Donald commented.

"We had it under control," Drax told him.

"No, we really didn't," Riku informed him as he and Vanitas climbed in the ship right after Sora and Kairi.

"He's right," Mantis announced. "That is only an extension of his true self. He will be back."

"Well, since he's a whole fucking planet, I'm not surprised," Vanitas commented as Peter and Gamora climbed into the ship.

"What's Smurfette doing here?" Peter asked, his attention at Nebula.

"Surprisingly, done trying to kill Gamora," Kairi informed him.

"Whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home," Nebula said, ignoring Kairi's words.

"She tried to murder us!" Rocket announced.

"And King Mickey!" Donald added.

"I saved you, you stupid chicken and fox!" Nebula snapped.

"He's not a fox," Gamora blandly told her.

"And Donald's not a chicken," Goofy added.

"I am Groot," Groot announced.

"I'm not a raboon, either," Rocket snapped.

"I am Groot," Groot corrected him.

"'Raccoon', whatever," Rocket said, looking down.

"We really gotta take this guy to Earth," Vanitas commented. "He will freak."

The sound of rumbling drew their attentions to outside the ship. Drax and Riku looked out the window next to them to see four large light tentacles rise up through the ground and start to lower down to the ship.

"How do we kill a Celestial?" Drax asked.

"There's a center to him," Peter announced as he went to the ladder up to the cockpit. "His brain, his soul, whatever it is, some sort of protective shell."

"The light of the planet," Sora remembered. "Snuff out that light, and we can take out Ego."

"It's in the caverns, below the surface," Mantis informed them.

"I knew should have stolen that huge ass drill I found on Earth 137," Vanitas commented.

The tentacles started pressing into the ship, forcing it down. Peter finished his climb into the cockpit and was surprised to see Yondu in one of the chairs, struggling, and Mickey looking confused at the console.

"Yondu?" Peter asked, shocked.

Yondu grunted as he had the ship take off. It flew up into the air a bit before the tentacles slammed it back into the ground. Everyone exclaimed and tried to hold onto the walls as the ship threw them around. Peter managed to get into the pilots chair opposite of Yondu.

"Thank you," Mickey said. "I really didn't know what to do."

"Thrusters are out," Yondu informed Peter.

Peter opened a panel and started working on rearranging the wires.

"Guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid," he commented as he worked. "Otherwise, you'd have delivered me to this maniac."

"You still reckon that's the reason I kept you around, you idiot?" Yondu asked.

"I knew that was bullshit!" Donald exclaimed below them.

"Donald!" Mickey snapped. "Language!"

"Sorry!" Donald called up.

"That's what you told me, you old doofus," Peter reminded Yondu as Donald and Mickey did that.

"Once I figured out what happened to them other kids, I wasn't just gonna hand you over," Yondu informed him.

"You said you were gonna eat me," Peter reminded Yondu, looking right at him.

"That was being funny!" Yondu said.

After a second, Peter snapped, "Not to me!"

"Who the hell would find that funny!?" Vanitas snapped in the lower level.

"Yeah, for once, I'm gonna have to agree with V!" Kairi admitted.

"You people have issues," Rocket commented to Yondu and Peter.

"Of course I have issues," Peter agreed. A skeletal form of Ego floated up in front of the ship, yelling out in a legitimately creepy way. Peter pointed at him and exclaimed, "That's my freakin' father!"

"And I thought _I_ had daddy issues!" Vanitas commented. *** _2_ ***

Peter exclaimed as he sat back in the second pilot's seat.

"Thrusters are back up," he informed Yondu and Mickey.

"Hold on, everyone!" Mickey instructed.

Yondu and Peter piloted the ship through the form of Ego, slipping out of the tentacles. They then piloted through the window in front of them, soon having the ship do a nose dive right towards the ground far below them. Everyone exclaimed as they held onto something to try to keep themselves standing.

"We should be going up!" Yondu exclaimed.

"Yeah, I thought we were leaving!" Mickey exclaimed.

"We can't!" Peter informed them. "Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him." He started piloting the ship towards the large ravine below them. "Rocket!"

"Got it!" Rocket announced as he took his place in the seat below them.

Rocket got to work, and little mechanical balls rolled to the front of the ship, firing out lasers that took apart the ground in front of them, clearing the way for the mining ship to take them all down.

"Whoo-hoo!" Peter exclaimed.

"Fuck, yeah!" Vanitas cheered, pumping a fist.

They continued flying down, with Rocket taking apart the many large pieces of rock that came in front of them with the lasers.

"So we're saving the galaxy again?" Rocket asked.

"I guess," Peter admitted.

"Why does the fate of the galaxy always tend to fall on our shoulders?" Goofy commented.

"Awesome!" Rocket exclaimed, taking out more pieces of rock. "We're really gonna be able to jack up our prices if we're two-time galaxy savers."

"I seriously can't believe that's where your mind goes," Peter commented.

"Me, neither," Sora said. "And I thought Donald was greedy."

"Even I find limits to greed," Donald admitted. *** _3_ ***

"It was just a random thought, guys," Rocket told them. "I thought we were all friends. Of course I care about the planets, and the buildings, and all the animals on the planets."

"And the people," Peter added.

"Meh," Rocket said, cocking his head to the side.

"Why is he such a dick?" Kairi asked.

"Where do we begin?" Goofy asked.

"That crabby puppy is so cute," Mantis announced with a wide smile as she looked at Rocket. "He makes me want to die!"

"Oddly enough, not the weirdest thing I've heard this entire trip," Riku admitted.

Vanitas gripped his head as he had a slight vision. Back in the ship above the planet, Kraglin watched in shock as another entire Sovereign fleet came out of jump points to Ego, led by High Priestess Ayesha. She led the craft down to the planet, and Kraglin tried to turn on the transmission to them in the ship, which Vanitas sensed wasn't doing too well.

"Uh, guys," Vanitas announced. "We've got a problem."

"Yeah, we're trying to deal with him right now," Gamora remarked.

"No, another proble..." Vanitas started to say before the bumping of the ship threw him back.

They were still using the lasers to drill through the ground in front of them to get closer and closer to the core, with sides of the mining ship still occasionally bumping into the odd cave wall.

"So tell me, why Ego wants you here?" Yondu asked Peter in the pilots section.

"He needs my genetic connection to the light to help destroy the universe," Peter informed them.

"And you said he tried this before with a bunch of his other children, but they all got killed?" Mickey asked.

"Yeah," Yondu said. "Like I said, jackass!"

"Big one," Mickey agreed with a frown, wondering how any father could willingly do that to his own children.

"He tried to teach me how to control the power," Peter added.

"So, could you?" Yondu asked.

"A little," Peter admitted. "I made a ball."

"A ball?" Yondu asked, very clear frown on his face.

"I thought as hard as I could," Peter informed him. "It was all that I could come up with."

"You 'thought'?" Yondu asked. "You think when I make this arrow fly, or those guys summon their Keyblades, we use our heads?"

"Yeah," Mickey agreed. "It's not about strength of mind, but about strength of..."

He was cut off by the mining ship smacking into a large part of rock in front of them. Everyone exclaimed as the ship got knocked into a wall, scattering across it and sending out sparks. Pretty soon, the side door came off of the ship, just as they entered the giant cavern around the very core of the planet.

"That's gonna make it harder for us to fly out of here," Riku commented.

"No shit," Donald commented, no malice in his voice despite his word choice.

"Whoa," Drax breathed out as they looked out the hole to the entirety of the cavern around them.

Mantis walked over to the window on the opposite side, looking out. Vanitas and Kairi followed her gaze to see at the very center of the cave, a large sphere with pieces of orange... something, extending out far towards the cave walls all around them.

"There," Mantis informed them. "That's Ego's core."

"So that's what we gotta drill through," Kairi commented.

"That ore is thick, Rocket," Gamora told the raccoon.

"I got it covered," he assured the group.

Rocket flicked a few switches and pushed a few buttons, and all the spheres started moving into a spot where they were all gonna operate together.

"We must hurry," Mantis informed them. "It will not take Ego long to find us."

"In that case, I'm gonna need more ammo and a bigger gun," Kairi said, looking at Vanitas.

"Fine," Vanitas sighed out.

He reached into his sling and pulled out some extra handgun clips, along with an FN FAL rifle.

"Don't let that thing make you fall on your ass," Vanitas suggested.

"What are the chances of that happening?" Kairi asked, slinging the rifle around her shoulder by the strap.

"You'd be surprised," Vanitas commented, remembering Young Yuffie and Aerith firing rifles and subsequently getting knocked to the ground by the recoil.

While that was going on, Yondu and Peter had positioned the ship right in front of the core of the planet.

"Keep it steady," Rocket instructed as the last of the laser shooting balls moved into place.

The lasers started firing out, starting to burn out a good portion of the ore.

"We drill into the center, we kill him!" Peter announced.

They managed to keep up the drilling for a little bit before Yondu finally heard Kraglin over the transmitter.

" _Captain?_ " Kraglin said.

"What is it, Kraglin?" Yondu asked, leaning towards the transmitter.

" _Hey, remember that Ayesha chick?_ " Kraglin asked him.

"Yeah, why?" Yondu asked.

Before Kraglin could answer, their attentions were drawn to outside the ship. The Sovereign fleet had entered the cavern and were flying right towards them.

"Oh, hell!" Yondu exclaimed.

They turned the ship quickly just as the fleet started firing at them. Of course, as they flew around the large cavern, the blasts managed to hit them a bit. Gamora, Drax, Mantis, Riku, Kairi, and Goofy exclaimed as they fell out of the hole. Drax, Gamora, Mantis, and Riku managed to land on their feet on a part of ground below them. Riku managed to catch Kairi to stop her from getting hurt, and Drax did the same thing with Goofy.

"You think if we tell this Ayesha lady that we're trying to save the galaxy she'll stop trying to kill us?" Kairi asked as Riku set her down onto her feet.

"That's unlikely," Gamora admitted.

They watched as the entire fleet continued to chase the mining ship around the cavern. Kairi raised her rifle and started firing at the remote control ships to the best of her ability while Riku tried firing Dark Firaga.

On the ship, Sora, Vanitas, and Donald were trying a similar solution. Sora and Donald were launching various spells at the Sovereign aircraft while Vanitas fired a Desert Eagle handgun at the ship. Turns out, a .50 calibre handgun only managed to crack some of the front glass.

"Why aren't you firing the lasers?" Peter called down to Rocket.

"They blew out the generator," Rocket informed him as he climbed out of his seat and went to his bag. "I think I packed a small detonator."

"A detonator is worthless without explosives," Nebula informed him as he dumped out his bag.

"I knew I shouldn't've used up the rest of my C4 blowing up that building," Vanitas admitted, somber voiced.

"Well, we got these," Rocket rationalized, grabbing the anulax batteries.

Peter climbed down the ladder as Rocket started combining the batteries with the detonator.

"Is that thing strong enough to kill Ego?" he asked.

"If it is, it'll cause a chain reaction throughout his entire nervous system," Rocket informed them as Nebula went up the ladder to the pilots seats.

"What does that mean?" Donald asked as he sent out another blast of Blizzard.

"The entire planet will explode," Rocket told them as Groot climbed onto his shoulder. "We'll have to get out of here fast."

Peter activated the aero-rig on his back, making it appear.

"I rigged a timer," Rocket added.

"Then let's get rolling," Vanitas announced, placing an aero-rig on Donald's back.

The duck exclaimed in confusion as the jet pack appeared along his chest.

"Did you steal that from the ship?" Rocket asked.

"Yes," Vanitas confirmed.

"I'm impressed," Rocket admitted in an actually impressed voice.

"Sora, protect the ship," Vanitas instructed, making his gauntlets and boots appear in flashes of light.

"You got it," Sora assured him, raising his Keyblade.

"Go!" Peter instructed.

Peter, Rocket, Donald, and Vanitas all jumped out of the ship and activated the thrusters, flying out of the ship and dodging lasers as they got close to the giant core. They landed in the small hole that they had made, pretty roughly.

Back on the ground, Kairi and Riku's firing at the Sovereign fleet got interrupted by the ground shaking. Light flared in the ground and parts of walls around them garnered their attentions, along with the other guardians' attentions.

"He's coming," Mantis told them with a grave voice.

Kairi fired at the ground where the light was flaring, which predictably had no results.

"Honestly, what did you think would happen?" Riku asked.

Large pieces of ground in front of them actually rose up as it shook, with the light growing larger.

"Didn't you say you could make him sleep?" Drax asked Mantis.

"When he wants," Mantis pointed out. "He's too powerful. I can't!"

"You don't have to believe in yourself... because _I_ believe in you," Drax assured Mantis.

"Are those two gonna get together?" Kairi muttered to RIku.

"I got no damn clue," Riku admitted.

Mantis breathed out in consideration as she looked at him. They all looked forwards as the light formed a large version of Ego's face, which started vomiting light right towards them. Mantis looked down at the vein in the ground with light surging through. As the light in front of them grew closer, Mantis kneeled down and placed a hand on the vein.

"Sleep!" Mantis bellowed, the tops of her antennae glowing.

Within seconds, the light disappeared from in front of them, including the light forming Ego's face.

"Good goin', Mantis!" Goofy congratulated her.

"Nice job," Riku added with a nod.

"I never thought she'd be able to do it," Drax informed them with a happy laugh. "With as weak and skinny as she appears to be."

Kairi raised an eyebrow at the guy.

"I don't know how long I can hold him," Mantis announced.

Back up in the small gash in the planet core, Rocket and Vanitas turned on flashlights and looked around in the gash they were in. It wasn't far enough in for them to place the bomb in, with only a small hole into another cave that was below them.

"The metal's too thick," Rocket informed them. "For the bomb to work, we'd actually need to place it on Ego's core. And our fat butts ain't gonna fit through those tiny holes."

"Well..." Peter said, looking down at Baby Groot, who was twirling a leaf on his right arm.

"That's a terrible idea," Rocket told him.

"Which is the only kind of idea we have left," Peter pointed out.

"Am I the only one who's noticed we end up with those kinds of ideas a lot?" Vanitas asked.

"No, I have, too," Donald assured him.

Rocket groaned in annoyance and placed Rocket on his back.

"Unbelievable," he muttered as he and Donald climbed down into the hole. "'Rocket, do this. Rocket, do that'."

Peter and Vanitas walked to the hole, and Peter twirled his guns in preparation. Deciding to go all out, Vanitas pulled out an M32A1 grenade launcher with with a belt of grenades that he wrapped around his chest.

"What a day," Peter sighed out.

"You said it, dude," Vanitas agreed with his own sigh.

Peter stepped off the ledge and flew up, firing his blasters at the Sovereign ships. Vanitas followed behind, attacking in the same manner he had done to Xemnas's dragon, firing the grenades quickly at the automated ships.

In the small cave over the planet core, Rocket and Donald sat down in front of Groot, with the explosive device between the small group.

"All right, first you flick this switch, then this switch," Rocket explained to Groot. "That activates it." He placed it down and pointed to the button right next to the levers. "Then you push this button, which will give you five minutes to get out of there." Groot looked up at them. "Now, whatever you do..." He pointed right at the button farthest from the levers, which was slightly cracked. "Don't push this button. Because that will set off the bomb immediately and we'll all be dead."

"You got that, little guy?" Donald asked.

Groot nodded as he looked down at the bomb then back up at them.

"Now, repeat back what I just said," Rocket told Groot.

"I am Groot," Groot said.

"Uh, huh," Rocket said.

"I am Groot," Groot said, looking down at the bomb.

"That's right," Rocket said.

"I am Groot," Groot said with a smile, pointing at the button with the crack.

"No!" Rocket exclaimed. "No, that's the button that'll kill everyone! Try again."

"Hmm..." Groot hummed in thought. "I am Groot."

"Mm-hmm," Rocket confirmed.

"I am Groot," Groot said.

"Uh, huh," Rocket confirmed.

"I am Groot," Groot said with another smile, pointing at the cracked button again.

"No!" Rocket exclaimed. "That's exactly what you just said! How is that even possible?"

"Maybe I should've learned from how I interacted with my nephews," Donald commented.

"What, did your nephews try to kill you?" Rocket asked.

"I couple of dozen times," Donald admitted.

Rocket legitimately looked surprised by that, but shrugged it off as he looked back down at Groot.

"Which button is the button you're supposed to press?" he asked Groot. "Point to it."

Groot pointed at the cracked button again with a a smile again.

"No!" Rocket exclaimed.

"Hey, you're making him nervous!" Peter announced above them.

Rocket looked up to see Peter and Vanitas through the hole, looking down at them.

"Shut up and get me some tape!" Rocket yelled at them. "Does anybody have any tape out there? I wanna put some tape over the death button."

"I don't have any tape," Peter admitted.

"Neither do I," Vanitas admitted. "You'd think I would, right?"

"Let us check," Peter informed him.

Rocket and Donald sat and waited, listening as Vanitas and Peter went around, asking Yondu, Mickey, Sora, Gamora, Kairi, Goofy, Riku, and Drax if they had any tape.

"Yes, Scotch tape would work," they heard Peter tell Drax. "Then why did you ask me if Scotch tape would work, if you don't have any?"

They returned to the hole above them, and Peter announced, "Nobody has any tape!"

"Not a single person has tape?" Rocket asked.

"Nope!" Peter informed him.

"Surprising, right?" Vanitas asked, firing his grenade launcher at a Sovereign ship without even looking at it.

"Did you ask Nebula?" Rocket pointed out.

Peter paused before answering, "Yes!"

"Are you sure?" Rocket asked.

"We asked Yondu and Mickey and she was sitting right next to them," Peter admitted.

"I knew you were lying!" Rocket exclaimed.

"You have priceless batteries and an atomic bomb in your bag," Peter pointed out as Groot took the bomb and turned around. "If anybody's gonna have tape, it's you!"

Donald's attention was drawn to Groot running towards one of the holes.

"Uh, Rocket...?" Donald started to ask.

"That's exactly my point!" Rocket snapped at Peter and Vanitas. "I have to do everything!"

"You are wasting a lot of time here!" Peter informed him.

"Rocket?" Donald said, grabbing Rocket and pointing at Groot.

They watched as Groot carried the bomb and excitedly jumped into the hole, sliding down further and further into Ego's core. Donald and Rocket looked down, guessing what was gonna happen.

"We're all gonna die," Rocket sighed out.

"Horribly," Donald agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 Yeah, that's a reference to The Thing. And obviously, the Slenderman
> 
> *2 Yeah, it's kinda repetition at this point, but it is still true
> 
> *3 He has proven in the game that even he has limits to greed


	9. Mary Poppins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group takes care of the Sovereign, but then has to deal with Ego again...

In the cavern, Yondu, Nebula, and Mickey continued to pilot the mining ship while being chased by the Sovereign remote piloted ships. Sora was still blasting various spells out the large hole where the door used to be, but Donald had all the Ethers, so he had to wait for his expenses to recharge on their own. Unfortunately, things got worse by one of the Sovereign craft successfully hitting the back of the ship.

"Rear thrusters are out again!" Yondu exclaimed as the ship slowed down. "We're done for without that generator!"

"Maybe I should have learned Thunder," Mickey admitted. *** _1_ ***

Nebula groaned in annoyance and opened one of the metal plates on her arm, revealing various wires and ports.

Outside the ship, the Sovereign craft kept firing, and Peter and Vanitas did their best to reach it while dodging the gunfire. They crashed into the ship pretty roughly at the same time a blast hit the floor, doing a bit more damage to them.

"You guys okay?" Sora asked.

"Not exactly," Vanitas admitted with a wince.

Through the hole, they could see the Sovereign craft stop firing as they all started to gather around the ship. Sora, Vanitas, and Peter watched in shock.

" _Guardians,_ " Ayesha announced through the projection. During her next rant, Nebula started plugging wires into her arm, and Yondu had the laser shooting sphere's place themselves all around the ship. " _Perhaps it will provide you solace that your deaths are not without purpose. They will serve as a warning to all of those tempted to betray us. Don't screw with the Sovereign_."

Vanitas popped his head out of the ship and looked right at the one craft with Ayesha's face projected.

"Fuck you, bitch!" he bellowed, flipping that specific craft the bird.

All the craft started firing at once, and Vanitas yelled out in fear as he climbed back in, hiding behind the wall as the laser blasts hit the ship, causing some explosions.

"I want my mommy!" Vanitas cried out in fear with his eyes closed. With fear still on his face, he opened his eyes and saw Peter and Sora looking at him in surprised confusion. His expression and voice never wavering, he told them, "If either of you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you."

In the cockpit, Nebula attached the last wire to her mechanical forearm, and Mickey looked at her with some concern.

"This is gonna hurt," Yondu informed her.

"Sorry," Mickey said with a wince.

"Promises, promises," Nebula told them with her usual bland tone.

Yondu smirked and pulled some levers. Nebula then yelled out in pain as electricity surged through her body, flaring brightly. Mickey winced at her discomfort, but it wasn't all for naught. Lasers started firing out of all the spheres, immediately blowing up multiple craft and narrowly missing Drax, Mantis, Goofy, and Riku.

"Hey!" Drax yelled up at them.

"I think we can forgive them in this case," Riku informed him.

"Now, you're sure they're not killin' anyone?" Goofy asked.

Nebula and Yondu exclaimed as they started turning the ship, sending out the lasers into all the craft. Peter and Vanitas looked out the hole, laughing maniacally and flipping all the craft the bird as they took them all out with the lasers in seconds. Vanitas sensed that that _really_ upset Ayesha, which made him laugh even more.

Unfortunately, to last craft crashed into each other and sent one of their engines into the mining ship. It crashed on the floor, causing a fire, which was only made worse by gasoline pouring out of the rocket into the fire.

"We're gonna blow!" Peter exclaimed.

"Shit!" Vanitas exclaimed, grabbing Sora by the shoulder.

Yondu started whistling for his arrow, just as the explosion burst in the ship floor. It grew large enough to make the entire ship explode. The rest of the group on the ground watched with shocked expressions.

"Peter! No!" Gamora cried out.

"Sora!" Riku, Kairi, and Goofy cried out. Yet, only Riku and Goofy cried out, "V! Your Majesty!"

Through the smoke, Nebula fell out and landed directly on her feet, and Mickey spun out, doing lots of flips as he landed next to Nebula.

Mickey breathed out, "That was really hot," as he looked up at Nebula.

"You aren't around a lot of explosions, are you?" Nebula asked.

"More than you'd think," Mickey admitted.

The two then looked up with the others right at the smoke. But then as it started to clear, the others floated down. Peter had his face uncovered, with his aero-rig operating to help him hover down. Yondu was actually floating down with the help of his arrow. Vanitas had the thrusters on his boots and one of his hands working to help him hover down, with his other arm around Sora's shoulders to help his lookalike. There was also a red, black, and gold helmet over his head with a spiked black face mask part, and two pointed horns going up. *** _2_ ***

"Where'd the helmet come from?" Sora asked.

"I have no idea," Vanitas admitted. "I think it goes with the rest of the armor."

Sora and Vanitas then looked up at Yondu with Peter, who was chuckling a bit.

"What?" Yondu asked.

"You look like Mary Poppins," Peter told him.

"Oh, yeah, I see it," Vanitas said with a nod that was a little difficult since he wasn't used to the helmet again.

"Is he cool?" Yondu asked.

After exactly one second of thought, Peter told him, "Hell yeah, he's cool."

"Badass," Vanitas added in assurance.

Yondu looked down at the group below them and bellowed, "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!"

' _I can't believe Michael Rooker so readily and willingly said that_ ,' Vanitas thought with a laugh.

They floated down to the ground and gathered with the others next to Mantis, who was still kneeling down and using her powers to keep Ego asleep. Within seconds, Rocket and Donald floated down with their aero-rigs, joining them. They all looked around at the explosions happening all around as the craft crashed, mixtures of pride and amazement on their faces. That was cut off when a piece of ship suddenly hit Mantis in the head, knocking her to the ground, unconscious.

"Mantis, look out!" Drax yelled.

"Uh... a little late, dude," Riku commented.

Vanitas frowned and asked, "Since when do you talk like a normal teenager?"

Light then started traveling through the vein that Mantis was holding onto, spreading out through the entire cavern. Drax kneeled down to pick up Mantis as the light grew and glared brightly, drowning out the lights from the explosions.

"This is very, very not good," Sora commented as Kairi grabbed onto his chest in worry.

"She's just unconscious," Drax informed them as he stood up with Mantis in his arms.

Vanitas gripped his head as he had a slight vision, seeing Groot travailing down the small caverns towards Ego's brain. Luckily, when he came to a crossroads, the baby version of their friend smartly went down the one with a light glowing that signified what Ego was talking about.

"How long until the bomb goes off?" Peter urgently asked Rocket.

"In the unlikely even that Groot doesn't kill us all, about six minutes," Rocket informed them.

"We gotta start getting the fuck out of here," Vanitas exclaimed as the cavern kept shaking.

The ground around them started to break apart, and far above them, a new ravine opened up, revealing the different light of the planet's sun far above them.

Yondu turned on the transmitter on his chest and announced, "Kraglin, we need the quadrant for an extraction. T-minus five minutes."

" _Aye, Captain_ ," Kraglin said before the transmission ended.

"Somebody's gotta be up top when Kraglin arrives," Peter announced. "Drax, take Mantis."

Peter took his aero-rig off of his back and attached it to Drax's.

"Ow! My nipples!" Drax exclaimed.

The rockets ignited and started having him fly up, and the grey skinned man screamed out from the pain.

The ground kept shaking around them as more of the light based tentacles popped out nearby. Some of the ground started falling down, taking Gamora and Mantis with it, with Gamora yelling out in fear.

"Gamora!" Peter called out.

"We've gotta..." Kairi started to say.

But then her foot slipped on a piece of ground, and she fell down, with her head hitting the rock hard.

"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed in fear.

Riku kneeled down next to her, with Sora looking down at her with his eyes wide.

"She's unconscious," Riku admitted. "Might have a concussion."

"Okay, that's simple," Sora said. "We just gotta use Cura..."

He was cut off by more tentacles appearing, and the rock wall far behind them forming into a version of Ego's face.

"Peter!" the face bellowed out.

Vanitas exclaimed as he placed another aero-rig on Riku's back. The rocket formed with the chest plate, surprising the silver haired boy a bit.

"Get her out of here," Vanitas instructed. "We'll take care of this fucker."

Riku nodded his head and dismissed his Keyblade. He hauled Kairi up with both arms and slung her over his shoulder, passing Vanitas his rifle.

"Kick his ass," Riku instructed.

Riku nodded a head, and Sora, Vanitas, Mickey, Peter, and Yondu nodded back. Riku ignited the rockets and he started flying up after Drax. The rest of the group faced Yondu and got their weapons ready as the tentacles rose up, covering themselves in pieces of rock. *** _3_ ***

At the same time this was happening, Gamora and Nebula continued falling down the caverns, until Nebula managed to grab Gamora with her normal hand. As they passed a large rock, Nebula used her cybernetic hand to slow their descent. She then exclaimed as she threw Gamora up on top of the rock structure, where she landed a little roughly. Gamora looked over the edge to see Nebula climbing up onto the rock. The sisters breathed in and out as they looked at each other.

"Get over it," Nebula snapped in her usual bland tone.

Up above, the group fought off the tentacles. Peter shot his blasters, Yondu flew his arrow flew them, Rocket dodged them, Sora attacked with combos and magic, Donald cast magic or whacked with his staff, Goofy threw or whacked with his shield, Mickey attacked with his Keyblade, and Vanitas fired the FN FAL rifle until it clicked empty, so he replaced it with his machete.

"Come now, Peter," Ego's giant face told Peter with a reasoning voice as Peter kept firing at the tentacles. "I know this isn't what you want."

Yondu kept whistling and taking out the tentacles that were all around him while Mickey stood next to him, slashing with his Keyblade and sending out little bursts of light.

"What kind of father would I be to let you make this choice?" Ego asked.

"A good one!" Vanitas remarked, slashing through a tentacle.

Yondu kept whistling as light gathered into a giant ball that gathered rocks, forming a giant ball. Yondu kept whistling as Mickey sent out bursts of light, and within a few seconds, they managed to destroy the orb. Yondu then caught the arrow with a triumphant expression.

"Nice job," Mickey praised.

"Thanks," Yondu send. "You're not so bad yourself, rodent."

"Normally, I'd resent that nickname," Mickey admitted. "But with your past, I'll allow it."

Yondu smirked as he sent his arrow flying again, which went through a tentacle that started to grow around Rocket.

Rocket and Donald flew up with their aero-rigs as four large tentacles that started to surround them. Donald blasted all four with thunder before Rocket threw some small red orbs at them. The orbs attached to the tentacles pretty easily, which ended up being a good thing. When the tentacles moved in to attack Rocket and Donald, Rocket activated the orbs and had a yellow sphere of protection appear around them.

"Badass," Donald informed his friend with a smile.

The tentacles then pushed around the sphere, knocking the two into the walls.

"Okay, not so badass," Donald admitted as he got pressed into the side.

Rocket then winced as the same thing happened to him, then he pulled out a button. He pressed it and activating the orbs. They then blew up the tentacles in a big explosion. The shield faded with the tentacles, and the two fell to the ground.

"Yeah!" Rocket said triumphantly as he retracted his blaster.

"Let's take this prick," Donald said.

But then they were immediately knocked to the side by another tentacle.

Peter kept blasting the tentacles as they got closer to him. Sora and Vanitas stood behind him and slashed at the tentacles that came near them with their blades, growing more tired with each strike. Goofy kept spinning around to try to take out the tentacles that were near him, which proved to be a bad idea. He eventually got too dizzy, to the point that when he finally stopped spinning, he woozily fell to the ground and passed out.

"That's not good," Sora commented.

"Soon, Peter, we will be all there is," Ego told Peter as Peter kept blasting apart the tentacles in front of him. But then one appeared behind him that rose up high into the air, quickly garnering his attention. "So stop pissing me off!"

"Shit!" Vanitas exclaimed.

Peter fired his blasters at the tentacle while Sora and Vanitas hacked at it with their blades. That turned out to be all for naught as the tentacle kept attacking. The three narrowly dodged the first strike, but then the next strike sent them all to the ground, with Peter's mask falling off, revealing the blood on the side of his face.

"This really isn't gonna help Kairi's opinion of you," Sora informed V.

"You think?" Vanitas asked, a worried expression on his face.

Pandemonium was going on all around. Nebula and Gamora decided to try to use one of the rising rock pillars to get back up to the extraction point, jumping onto it and gripping the edge of the top as they rode it up. Kraglin landed the ship quadrant onto the ground of the planet, which was now resembling a desert having a sandstorm. Drax flew up out of the ravine and landed on the ground, running towards the quadrant far in front of him. Riku flew up seconds later with Kairi still over his shoulder.

"You know you can keep flying with that thing on your back, right?" Riku reminded him as he started flying right to the quadrant.

Kraglin landed the quadrant and had the carbo bay doors on the bottom open up for them. Drax kept running while Riku kept flying. But then they both stopped in shock as tentacles burst out of the ground and grabbed onto the ship. Kraglin did his best to fly away as the tentacles kept pulling at the ship, making it start to fall to the ground. Drax then immediately turned around and started running away from it.

"Again, there's the rockets on your back," Riku yelled out a reminder as he flew away with Kairi still over his shoulder. "This is like that movie V told me about, Prometheus!"

Drax kept running, reaching the edge of the cliff over the ravine and crouching down with a wince, holding himself over Mantis defensively. The quadrant kept falling and nearly crushed the two, but Kraglin managed to ignite the rockets on the side just in time. The quadrant started flying up away from them. Drax then turned back around and started running right towards the quadrant again as it started to reposition itself.

"How much of these things follow these stereotypical movie rules?" Riku asked himself as he started flying towards the ship, with Kairi still unconscious over his shoulder. *** _4_ ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 With everything we've seen from Mickey, he doesn't seem to know most of the other combat spells. The only time he has is Mission Mode back in Days, and that's not exactly canon
> 
> *2 I had the boots and the gauntlets come back, I figured we needed the helmet, too
> 
> *3 Sometimes I feel like I rush a little bit too much with these things, because I couldn't think of another way for Riku and Kairi to get to the quadrant. I am 100% definitely going to have them be more active in combat in the next story, though. At some point
> 
> *4 You've got no idea, Riku


	10. Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group escapes the planet while the rest finish off Ego...

Pandemonium was still going on under the surface of the planet. Gamora and Nebula were down on top of the large rock pillar as it continued to rise through the cavern towards the top ravine part exposing the sunlight. Of course, the rock soon ended up crashing into the cavern wall that was below the way out. The sisters exclaimed as the rock crashed them to the wall. They latched onto the side and resolved to start climbing the rest of the way.

Below them, the rest of the group was still taking on Ego. Yondu was still whistling and taking out the tentacles that came near him. Rocket was flying around with his aero-rig, exclaiming as the tentacles pushed him around as he blasted them. Mickey and Donald kept attacking with their weapons, while Sora and Vanitas slashed with their blades as they got up with Peter, who was kneeling.

For good reason. His attention was drawn to a large spire of land that had just opened up, revealing the outline of a man with his arms spread out made of light. The outline started walking towards them, slowly forming the image of a person, starting from the skeleton and building up a nervous system.

"That's disgusting," Sora said with a grimace.

"This is a family movie," Vanitas commented with a wince as they watched it happen.

Within a few minutes, things started going wrong.

Yondu kept whistling and having his arrow fly through the tentacles, but then a particularly large one forced him to the ground, breaking the arrow into two. Yondu yelled out in pain as the pieces of ground and light forced him to the... ground.

Mickey was flipping through the air when a tentacle suddenly grabbed him and started squeezing him tight, making the King cry out in pain.

Rocket and Donald were still being chased by the tentacles around them, but were quickly starting to get overwhelmed, making them yell out in fear.

Up above, Drax was still running towards the ship with Mantis in his arms, when suddenly the dirt opened up with light swirling around, pulling him down through the ground. He exclaimed as he tried to force his way through the dirt, soon resolving to hold up Mantis with both arms to protect her.

"Drax!" Riku exclaimed.

He hovered down to their level and tried pulling at Drax's arm with his free arm, to no avail. Drax gasped as his head went under the dirt.

"Shit!" Riku exclaimed as he kept tugging at Drax with one hand while also keeping the unconscious Kairi over his shoulder with the other.

Similar hell was going on with the other members of the group. Gamora and Nebula were still climbing up the wall when suddenly tentacles appeared, wrapping around their bodies. They struggled against the tentacles as best they could as some started to even cover their faces.

Sora and Vanitas were still doing their best to slash at the tentacles, but even they were soon overcome. One thicker tentacle rose up behind Vanitas and pressed him to the ground, hard. Another large tentacle grabbed onto Sora and pressed him into a nearby wall, pinning him down. He couldn't even move his Keyblade arm with how much it was pressing him down.

"Dah!" Vanitas exclaimed in pain as the tentacle kept pushing him to the ground. "Fuck you, Slender-Thing Mac!"

In the deeper caves, the ground was starting to close in around Groot as well, making him close his eyes and cry out as he did his best to keep the cave walls from him.

The light form of Ego kept walking towards Peter with his arms raised, now growing organs over the skeleton.

"I told you, I don't want to do this alone," Ego reminded Peter.

A large tentacle appeared behind Peter along with three smaller ones around him. The larger one went right through his chest, making him yell out in pain as it picked him up a bit.

"You cannot deny the purpose the universe has bestowed upon you," Ego snapped, pointing right at Peter as the nervous system finished constructing itself and started reconstructing its body.

The smaller tentacles went into Peter's neck and forced him onto his knees. He continued yelling out as light traveled out of him and into the cave. It even went up to the core above them and lit it up bright.

Vanitas winced even more as he had a slight vision. The Expansion had resumed. On Earth, it crushed a couple of people in Missouri, along with more cars and fragments of buildings. On Xandar, it started in a large park in the middle of a city and quickly spread through, gobbling up lots of innocent people. It started on the Sovereign, destroying pieces of buildings and chasing people as they ran for their lives. It started on other worlds, consuming Watchmen and Orloni, and getting close to crushing a woman with a crying baby who resigned herself to fate.

"It doesn't need to be like this, Peter," Ego said in a reasoning voice once again during Vanitas's vision. "Why are you destroying our chance? Stop pretending you aren't what you are. One in billions. Trillions. Even more." As Ego finished repairing his body, he bellowed, "What greater meaning can life possibly have to offer?"

His body still wracked with pain, Peter looked up with his eyes closed and a defeated expression.

"I don't use my head to fly the arrow, boy!" Yondu yelled to Peter, getting his attention. "I use my heart..."

He was cut off by the pieces of ground covering his head.

"Same with Keyblades!" Vanitas exclaimed.

"It's not about strength of mind!" Sora added. "It's about strength of heart..."

The tentacles had the pieces of ground then cover their faces to get them to shut up.

Peter took in their words in thought as he looked at Ego again. He thought about some of the best moments of his life: listening to his tapes with his mom, laughing with Drax in the ship, laughing hard with Sora and Vanitas as the latter told his Goat-At-Thanksgiving story, flying via aero-rig with Rocket and Groot, almost kissing Gamora on their last adventure, practicing throwing Goofy's shield during their last adventure with Donald acting as a baseball player with his staff, and Yondu teaching him how to shoot his blasters when he was a kid.

With that, his expression of thought turned into one of determination. He gripped his fist, and the dirt started swirling around him, much to Ego's surprise. Light appeared in the ground below them, only adding to his surprise since he didn't form it.

"You shouldn't have killed my mom, and squished my Walkman," Peter growled out.

Peter then launched himself out of the tentacles, tackling Ego with his flight and leaving behind a trail of blue smoke. He crashed his father through a large uniquely designed pillar before making earth appear over his fist and punching Ego in the face twice.

With that, things started improving for everyone else.

Up top, the dirt fell from around Drax, allowing him to breathe again. Riku helped him get out of the dirt at an easier pace than before.

"Okay, maybe I should have activated the aero-rig," Drax admitted.

"You think?" Riku asked with a sarcastic smirk.

Below the ground, the tentacles released from around Gamora and Nebula, allowing them to breathe again. The rocks appeared from around the others, releasing Donald and Rocket, Mickey and Yondu, and Sora and Vanitas. Vanitas even saw the Expansion stopping as the walls opened back up around Groot.

Vanitas stood up and winced, popping a bone in his neck.

"We gotta get Goofy out of here," Donald said, going over to his downed best friend.

"Who's gonna carry him?" Mickey asked.

"You guys," Vanitas answered.

He took out another aero-rig and pressed it onto Mickey's back. The King exclaimed in surprise as the chest plate and rocket appeared around him.

"How many of those did you take?" Rocket asked.

"Uh..." Vanitas said in thought, taking out a space suit. "Three aero-rigs and one suit. You didn't have a lot of suits leftover."

"Yeah, the crash did a number on those," Rocket admitted before flying off.

"Get him out of here," Sora told Mickey and Donald. "We'll help Peter take care of Ego."

Mickey and Donald nodded their heads at Sora and picked up Goofy in their arms. They looked up and started flying, right towards open way out of the cavern. Vanitas ignited his boots and flew up after Peter, with Sora leaping up after him.

At the same time, Rocket flew up to the hole they had drilled into the side of the world core.

"Groot?" he called in. "If you can hear me, hurry up! I'm not sure how long Quill, Sora, and V can keep him distracted! Groot, hurry!"

Deep in the cave, Groot walked up to the end of the cave where he found Ego's giant pulsing brain surrounded by some kind of membrane. Groot walked up to the membrane and attached the bomb to it. He pushed up the two levers, starting a timer for five minutes. He then looked at the buttons and raised his hand. Groot then moved his finger in front of the one with a crack, but stopped before actually pressing it. He then pressed the one next to it, starting the timer. Groot then turned from the brain and started running, a little bit of fear on his face.

On the surface, Drax and Riku reached the quadrant and entered through the cargo bay doors, where there were some chairs along the walls. Riku rested Kairi in one while Drax laid Mantis on the floor before they started running up the stairs to the cockpit. Back at the ravine across the land, Gamora and Nebula climbed up out of the hole and started towards the quadrant, with Mickey and Donald flying up over them, carrying the still unconscious Goofy.

In the cavern, Peter, Vanitas, and Sora were facing off against Ego. Peter flew with his father as they grappled each other, occasionally knocking him through some of the large extensions. When Ego threw Peter aside, Sora leaped up and attacked with a long aerial combo that included three finishers. Vanitas flew in to punch Ego, but got knocked aside by the man before Peter tackled him through the air.

Vanitas landed roughly next to Yondu, who was trying to see things better through all the explosions. The Kree looked up just in time to see Rocket flying down towards him with Groot on his shoulder.

"Yondu, V, we're about to blow!" Rocket exclaimed.

"Get to the ship!" Yondu instructed.

"Not without Quill!" Rocket exclaimed.

"You need to take care of the twig!" Yondu informed him.

"And I'm not leaving without Sora," Vanitas admitted, standing up and popping his arm back into place.

"Not without you!" Rocket told Yondu with pleading eyes.

Yondu shook his head and looked down.

"I ain't done nothin' right in my whole damn life, rat," he admitted. He looked up. "You need to give me this."

Rocket sighed out as he took in Yondu's words. The two stared at each other before Rocket reached into his pouch on his belt, taking out two items.

"A spacesuit and an aero-rig," Rocket explained, holding out said items to Yondu. "I only have one of each."

"Yeah, there were a surprisingly low number of suits," Vanitas commented as Yondu took the offered items from Rocket.

Rocket and Yondu stared at each other a bit more, with Rocket deciding against leaving yet and Yondu looking like he wanted to say "Thank you."

"I am Groot," Groot soon said.

"What's that?" Yondu asked.

Rocket looked up with a smirk and translated, "He says, 'Welcome to the frickin' Guardians of the Galaxy'."

"Only he didn't use 'frickin','" Vanitas added with a smirk.

Yondu gave a slight smirk, and he and Rocket nodded to each other. As Rocket flew up, Groot gave Yondu a wave that he returned.

"Bye, twig," Yondu said.

"See you guys," Vanitas added.

As they flew higher into the air, Rocket told Groot, "We're gonna need to have a real discussion about your language."

Higher in the air, Peter and Ego were still battling with Sora following behind with leaps, using the structures around him as footholds between each leap. Ego crashed Peter into one cave wall before launching him into another one not far, making a large indent.

Sora then leaped up in Limit Form, attacking with Ragnarok. Ego then made a large fist made of rock and knocked Sora aside, making the brunette fall down onto another structure.

"I will not be bested by a puny human like you!" Ego snapped.

"Hey!" Peter bellowed, getting his father's attention. "That puny human is more family to me than you'll ever be!"

Peter then launched himself up through the air, with Ego doing the same thing. Father and son flew towards each other while yelling out in preparation for more battle. Rocks started appearing around them, brown ones for Ego and yellow ones for Peter, soon taking form. A brown Ego charged at a yellow Pac-Man, which ended up destroying both forms. Peter and Ego then fell down through the cavern, crashing through another structure before they fell down and landed pretty roughly on a small bit of ground.

"Man," Sora commented. "This is wild."

He jumped off of the structure he was standing on and started falling through the cavern after them. He landed in a roll next to Peter and Ego, who were panting as they lay against the ground.

Up top, Gamora and Nebula had reached the quadrant of the ship with Donald, Goofy, and Mickey. Donald and Mickey had laid Goofy's unconscious form in one chair, and were sitting in the chairs on each side of their canine friend, fast asleep after the ordeal they had just went through. Gamora and Nebula were sitting on the floor next to the still unconscious Mantis, with Gamora running a hand protectively across the woman's face. Their attentions were soon drawn to the arrival of Rocket. He landed on the floor next to them, and Groot jumped off of his shoulder and joined them.

"Where's Peter?" Gamora quickly asked. Rocket just looked down sadly. "Rocket, where is he?"

Rocket pulled out a small device connected to his bomb, seeing that they had less than a minute left.

"Rocket," Gamora said, trying and failing to get the raccoon's attention. "Rocket, look at me! Where is he?"

Rocket sadly shook his head with his eyes closed. Groot sadly pointed out of the ship towards the ravine, emphasizing the point.

"No," Gamora said, standing up. "I'm not leaving without him."

She picked up a blaster and walked towards the exit. She cocked it in preparation, but then she was suddenly electrocuted into unconsciousness by Rocket, falling right to the floor.

"I'm sorry," Rocket said, sadly. "There's a limit to how many friends I can afford to lose today. And we're well past it already." He looked up and yelled, "Kraglin, go!"

In the cockpit, Kraglin got to work to initiate the takeoff.

"Wait," Drax said as Kraglin kept working. "Is Quill back?"

"What about Sora and V?" Riku asked.

Drax pressed a button to the transmitter and asked, "Rocket, where's Quill?"

"What about Sora and V?" Riku added.

When they didn't get an answer, Drax shouted, "Rocket, where's Quill?"

"And where are Sora and V?" Riku shouted.

Rocket watched sadly as the cargo bay doors closed.

" _Rocket!_ " he heard Drax yell over the transmitter. " _Where's Quill?_ "

" _And where are Sora and V?_ " Rocket heard Riku add. " _Answer us, damn you!_ "

As they made their escape, Peter and Sora kept fighting against Ego. Sora rammed his Keyblade into the man's face while Peter hit him with his intertwined fists. Peter then kept his arms around Ego, holding him down as the man desperately reached out his arms.

"No, we need to stop it," he pleaded. "We need to stop it!"

Peter exclaimed as he continued holding down his father. Peter then threw him down and Sora hit him with his Keyblade once more.

"Stop," Ego insisted as he and Peter got on their knees and grabbed each other by their jackets. "Stop. Listen to me! You are a god. If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else."

"What's so wrong with that?" Peter asked.

"No!" Ego cried out in despair.

Above them, the planet core exploded as the bomb went off, creating a gigantic blast of fire that encompassed the entire core, even sending up blue flames along the structures attached.

This had the effect that they expected it to. Ego started disintegrating face first in Peter's hands. Within seconds, Ego was completely gone, just a pile of ashes in front of them.

The explosion had a chain reaction throughout the entire planet. In orbit, the others could see explosions burst along the red landscape, along with parts that weren't exploding collapsing in on itself.

Back in the cavern, Peter looked down at his hands as the blue light disappeared entirely.

"Welcome to the normal club," Sora said, kneeling down next to Peter with an arm around his shoulders. He frowned. "Then again, I don't think any of us really classify as 'normal' at this point."

The two friends gave a small chuckle that faded as the entirety of the cave exploding around them. They looked down and closed their eyes, preparing for the worst...

But then Yondu and Vanitas flew in and grabbed them as they flew up into the air. Yondu had an aero-rig on his back and was carrying Peter while Vanitas had his armor on, carrying Sora. The two pairs flew up through the air and out of the cave as it exploded completely below them. They continued flying up through the atmosphere, as far away from that cave as they could get.

"Thanks," Sora said, a little surprised.

"No problem," Vanitas assured him. He smirked at his lookalike through his helmet. "Badass."

"He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn't your daddy," Yondu assured Peter as they kept flying.

"Family don't end with blood," Vanitas added with a smirk.

"Exactly," Sora agreed.

The two pairs kept flying up, with Yondu and Peter staring at each other pretty soon.

"I'm sorry I didn't do none of it right," Yondu told Peter. "I'm damn lucky you're my boy."

Vanitas and Sora smirked at the pair, figuring that they were their own great version of Father and Son.

But then Yondu breathed in to get as much air as possible as he attached a spacesuit to Peter.

"Oh, yeah," Vanitas said in remembrance, attaching the one he had left to Sora.

"What?" Peter asked as the suit surrounded himself.

Yondu smiled at Peter as they kept flying up, breaking through the atmosphere. Vanitas and Sora's eyes widened in realization as they realized what was going on. Yondu even winced as he looked up, accepting his fate. They kept going out of the atmosphere as the planet started to implode on itself behind them.

"Yondu, what are you doing?" Peter asked, fear in his voice. "You can't."

Yondu winced as he felt himself losing air.

"No!" Vanitas and Sora exclaimed in shocked unison.

"Yondu!" Peter yelled in desperation.

The aero-rig ran out for Yondu, and he and Peter floated in the air. Vanitas stopped his thrusters as he and Sora got next to Peter.

"Is there anything we can do?" Sora quickly asked Vanitas.

"Um..." Vanitas said, pulling out his book and leafing through the pages as quickly as he could in the void they were in. "I found a spell." He read the requirements. "It only works with the blood of a talking dog!?"

"No!" Peter exclaimed as he tried to detach his suit, to no avail. "No! No!"

He kept trying to pull off the spacesuit, and Sora and Vanitas could only watch with great sadness as frost started to grow around Yondu.

"Oh! Aww..." Peter cried as Yondu raised his hands up to Peter's head to cup his cheeks. "No! No! Oh, no!"

Peter could only watch as frost kept growing along Yondu. Within moments, his dark eyes went white as the life left him.

Sobbing, Peter grabbed the aero-rig and pulled Yondu in as he rested his head on the Kree's chest. Sora and Vanitas felt tears running down their cheeks as they pushed through the void and grabbed Peter from behind, wrapping their arms around him in a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really feel like adding the multiple notes, since there really isn't much I had to add here. Watching the movie, I did love the Pac-Man thing, but Yondu... now that I'm into the fanfiction and stuff, it really hit me hard


	11. The Colors of Ogord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Ravager funeral is held for Yondu, and the group has to separate again, for now...

The two pairs were soon found by all the others in their quadrant of the large ship, and were picked up by their friends. After fixing themselves up, they laid down Yondu's dead body what appeared to be a stretcher and started preparing it. They covered his face with ribbons and set various objects around it. Candles that they lit, some flowers, and the little trinkets he had around the ship console.

Once they were finished with the preparations, they gathered around the body in front of a burner. Kraglin, Rocket, Groot, Donald, Goofy, Drax, Riku, Vanitas, Peter, Sora, Kairi, Gamora, Mickey, and Mantis all stared down at their fallen ally. Sora and Kairi each had an arm around each other, Donald and Goofy had taken off their hats in respect, and Gamora stood on the other side of the room watching.

"I told Gamora how when I was a kid, I used to pretend David Hasselhoff was my dad," Peter softly told them. At Rocket, Rocket, Drax, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey's confused expressions, he elaborated, "He's a singer and actor from Earth, really famous guy."

Vanitas didn't really feel like saying that the guy's fame had faded a bit over the years.

"Earlier, it struck me..." Peter informed them. "Yondu didn't have a talking car, but he did have a flying arrow." Mantis smiled. "He didn't have the beautiful voice of an angel, but he did have the whistle of one. Both Yondu and David Hasselhoff went on kick-ass adventures and hooked up with hot women... and fought robots."

"Badass," Riku commented.

"Very," Kairi added as she and Sora nodded.

"I guess David Hasselhoff did kind of end up being my dad after all," Peter said. "Only it was you, Yondu." Gamora put a sympathetic hand on Peter's arm as a couple of tears ran down his cheeks. "I had a pretty cool dad."

Vanitas put a sympathetic hand on Peter's other shoulder, feeling despair in his chest, as if he also knew what it was like to lose your father figure.

"What I'm trying to say here is..." Peter started again. "Sometimes that thing you're searching for your whole life, it's right their by your side all along."

Gamora took in his words and looked past Peter to Nebula on the other side of the room. Nebula looked down with her eyes closed and walked out. Gamora and Kairi then followed her out, leaving everyone else around Yondu.

"I am Groot," Groot softly said.

"He did call you twig," Rocket agreed, still looking down.

Gamora and Kairi had followed Nebula out into a hallway like area, where Nebula had crossed a small bridge on her way towards the hanger.

"Nebula," Gamora called out. Nebula looked over her shoulder at them. During her next words, she and Kairi crossed the bridge and walked up to nebula. "I was a child like you. I was concerned with staying alive until the next day, every day. And I never considered what Thanos was doing to you. I'm trying to make it right. There are little girls like you across the universe who are in danger. You can stay with us and help them."

"I will help them by killing Thanos," Nebula informed them.

"I don't know if that's possible," Gamora said.

"I still don't understand a lot about this guy," Kairi admitted. "But he sounds like a sick prick. We're strong, especially when we're united. If you plan on fighting him, then we're gonna make sure we can be there to help you take him out. We're not gonna let someone that evil keep going."

Nebula gave a single nod at Kairi and turned away. Gamora grabbed her sister by her cybernetic arm, and Nebula quickly turned around and raised her other fist in preparation. But instead of starting a fight, Gamora wrapped her arms around Nebula in a hug. Kairi watched as Nebula kept her face as blank as it was before.

"You will always be my sister," Gamora promised.

Kairi thought for a second she saw Nebula's black eyes growing shinier, almost as if tears were growing. Before she could figure that out, Nebula turned away from Gamora and went through the door to the hanger.

In the other room, the rest of the group let the stretcher with Yondu slide into the thruster. Peter watched somberly as the multi colored lights flared around Yondu's body. The group then started to separate, with Peter walking away with Sora and Vanitas holding sympathetic hands on his shoulders.

"Pete!" Kraglin said.

They turned back around and faced the Ravager as he pulled out a small device.

"Captain found this for you in a junker shop," Kraglin explained, walking up to them. "Said you'd come back to the fold someday."

"What is it?" Peter asked.

"It's called a Zune," Kraglin explained, holding up the device. "It's what everybody's listening to on Earth nowadays."

Vanitas had to bite his tongue to stop himself from correcting him.

"It's got 300 songs on it," Kraglin added.

"300 songs?" Peter asked in slight shock.

"That's a lot of music," Sora commented, also not used to this kind of music device.

Kraglin nodded and shrugged slightly, turning away from them.

"Wait," Peter said, stopping the man. He reached into his boot and pulled out Yondu's telepathic arrow, holding it up. Kraglin took it with some surprise. "Rocket grabbed the pieces, and reassembled them. I think Yondu would want you to have it."

Kraglin looked up at Peter with wide eyes.

"Thanks..." he said with a cracked voice. "Captain."

Peter smiled at him and looked down at the Zune.

"Now just show me how to work this thing," he requested.

"Even I never had one of these things," Vanitas admitted.

"Well, the turny thing there makes the songs go up and down," Kraglin explained, gesturing to pieces of the Zune. "Made by primitive people."

"Thank you," Vanitas said earnestly with a smile.

"That is primitive," Peter agreed.

"I'll show you some of my favorites," Kraglin said, pointing to parts of the screen. "It's got Traffic. That's really good. They have some good songs. Thin Lizzie is a group I like a lot."

Even Sora was intrigued by this information.

"There's a lady on there named Alice Cooper that I like a lot," Kraglin added, and Vanitas covered his smirk with his hand. "She seems kind of angry, but kinda like stuff we felt when we were kids, you know."

"Um..." Vanitas said, lowering his mouth. "Alice Cooper is a guy."

Kraglin, Sora, and Peter looked surprised at that. They looked closer at the screen in confusion, causing Vanitas to laugh. They brushed it off in seconds and Peter kept looking through the songs.

"Cat," Peter said. "There's a cat."

The group dispersed once again as Yondu's body kept burning in the thruster. As most of the group gathered in the cockpit, Yondu's body started to deteriorate from the fires, breaking up into orange ashes that flew out of the burner in front of them.

Sora and Vanitas had followed Peter to a bedroom that Vanitas commented reminded him of his brother's bedroom. Peter sat on the bed with furred blankets and scrolled through the music on the Zune with the earbuds in his ears. Groot climbed up the bed and walked across it to Peter as he started playing Cat Stevens' "Father and Son."

Groot sat on Peter's leg, and with wide eyes raised his hands up towards the earbud. With a soft expression, Peter gave it to Groot, who pressed it up to the side of his head, which they guessed was supposed to be his ear. Sora and Vanitas smiled at the sight as Peter put a hand on Groot's back in a paternal manner.

On the other side of the ship, Gamora and Kairi watched as Nebula piloted the ship she took out, disappearing in the distance.

In the cockpit, Rocket perked up at the glare of green light outside of the ship.

"They came," he said in a relieved voice.

Sora, Vanitas, Peter, and Groot watched through the window in front of them as many ships of varying colors started flying towards them and gathering in front of the cockpit.

"What is it?" Drax asked as the rest of the group started to gather back in the cockpit, minus Kraglin.

"I sent word to Yondu's old Ravager buddies, and told them what he did," Rocket explained as they walked up to the windshield.

All the many ships gathered in front of theirs as the stream spewed out of the burner.

"It's a Ravager funeral," Peter informed them as Gamora and Kairi came into the room and watched with them.

Groot climbed down into Gamora's arms as the ships started sending out what appeared to be fireworks in colors resembling their ships.

"It's beautiful," Kairi said as Sora and Kairi wrapped their arms around each other again.

Goofy and Donald put their hats back on and smiled at the sight with Mickey.

"The Colors of Ogord," Vanitas said, standing next to Riku.

"The sign of respect to their fallen friend," Riku added, staring out the window with smiles.

They could hear Kraglin cheering in another room, pretty loudly. Vanitas closed one eye with a wince as he saw some of Yondu's old friends saluting him goodbye, including one that looked like Sylvester Stalone, one that looked like Ving Rhames, and...

' _Hela?_ ' he thought in confusion. ' _That might come back at some point..._ '

"He didn't chase them away," Rocket said as he looked out at the colors with a soft expression.

"No," Peter agreed, walking closer to the windshield.

"Even though he yelled at them," Rocket added.

"You never abandon friends," Mickey informed him. "Especially if they yell at you."

"And he was always mean," Rocket continued. He looked down. "And he stole batteries he didn't need."

Peter quickly looked down at Rocket and realized what he was talking about.

"Well, of course not," Peter informed Rocket.

"Friends are always doing crazy things," Donald added.

"Don't we know it," Goofy said with a laugh.

Gamora looked at Groot on her shoulder to see him reaching for Drax. She passed Groot off to the grey skinned man, who rested Groot on his shoulder with his hands. Groot yawned and rested on Drax's shoulder, quickly falling asleep. Drax rocked him a bit, and Gamora looked up at Peter with a soft expression. Peter looked at her with a slight smile.

"What?" he asked.

"It's just... some unspoken thing," Gamora informed him.

Sora, Kairi, Vanitas, and Riku smiled knowing smiles as the two watched the lights in front of them again, wrapping their arms around each other just like Sora and Kairi had.

"It's beautiful," Mantis said, looking up at the lights in wonder.

"It is," Drax agreed, looking at her. "And so are you." He looked up at the lights. "...On the inside."

Riku breathed out his nose in hiding a chuckle as he shook his head with a slight smile, expecting this completely from the man.

They all continued watching as the colors kept flaring brightly, with the orange ashes of Yondu started forming into the shape of an arrow flying and leaving a trail. Rocket looked up at the shape made in sadness as a tear slid down the side of his face.

Pretty soon, the colors had stopped glaring, and all the Ravagers started leaving. That's when Sora came to a realization.

"Wait a second..." he said, getting everyone's attention. "That whole 'Expansion' thing had spread to every universe in this galaxy. Right?"

"Yeah, that's what Ego said," Peter confirmed with a confused nod.

"That includes Earth, where you're from," Sora said with a worried voice.

"Yeah," Peter said. "What about it?"

Vanitas's eyes widened at what Sora was getting at, as did Donald and Goofy's.

"The Earth he's from is sometimes referred to as C-53," Vanitas announced. "Also known as..."

"Earth 616," Donald finished, remembering seeing those letters when they were crashing to the planet just a year ago.

"Son of a bitch," Vanitas exclaimed, worry in his voice.

"What has you so worried about Earth?" Rocket asked.

"We have friends there," Sora said. "This Expansion thing, it was huge."

He looked at Vanitas, Donald, and Goofy.

"We gotta make sure they're okay," Sora announced.

Vanitas, Donald, and Goofy all nodded in agreement at that.

"We'll... drop you back at your ship," Gamora informed them.

"We'll see you guys again soon," Goofy assured them. "We came back before, right?"

"But there's still the forewarning of time being wonky between different worlds," Vanitas warned.

"Especially between our universe and yours," Donald added.

"Eh, we'll get used to it," Rocket assured them with a wave of the hand.

"So... we're going to another world now?" Kairi asked.

"I'm okay with it," Riku admitted with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders.

Kairi sighed out and looked down.

"What's wrong?" Vanitas asked. He then smirked. "What? Just when you thought you were out, we pulled you _back_ in?" He pulled into his chest with the last words.

Peter laughed at Vanitas's reference. *** _1_ ***

"We'll see you again soon," Mickey promised.

"Nice to hear that, my new rodent friend," Drax said, looking down at Mickey with a smile.

"Now they get it right," Mickey commented with a smirk.

The Guardians gave the group a ride back to Berhert, where the Gummi ship was still resting next to the remains of the _Milano_. They all shared hugs and handshakes goodbye, with everyone wincing as they got bone-crushing ones from Drax. They waved goodbye as the group climbed into the Gummi ship and flew off world, towards _another_ group of their friends...

* * *

"My biggest regret was arm wrestling with Drax," Riku admitted to the group as they got closer to Earth 616. "I don't know what I was expecting to happen. But every time, my hand ended up making an indent in that table."

"I've done that," Vanitas commented with a smirk.

"You were the one making the indents, or you were the one who was having their hands slammed into the table?" Mickey asked.

"Bit of both," Vanitas admitted. *** _2_ ***

That caused some laughs to erupt among the ship.

"Hey, we're gonna have to put story time on hold for a bit," Donald announced. Everyone looked out the windshield to see Earth 616 coming into view. "We're here."

They piloted the ship down towards the green and blue planet.

"Remember where New York was?" Vanitas asked.

"Yup," Goofy said as he, Sora, and Donald nodded their heads in agreement.

"Take us there," Vanitas instructed. "Tony did wonders to his old Stark Tower."

They piloted the ship down into the city, quickly making their way to Avenger Tower. Remembering how often people took pictures or filmed him back when he was living here, Vanitas winced at the thought of how many people were probably already pointing their phones at the ship.

Avenger Tower came into view, and they floated the ship down to the landing pad near the top of the tower, right next to a Quinjet. The group got out of their ship and started walking across the landing pad to a door, but then that door opened, and out walked the Avengers, all six of them, to their surprise.

"Hey," Tony Stark greeted.

"Well, what do you know?" Bruce Banner asked with a smile.

"We're back, baby!" Vanitas exclaimed with a wide smile and his arms raised.

Vanitas walked up to his two old roommates and wrapped his arms around them. They returned the hug, then parted after a few seconds.

"So, what have you guys been up to?" Tony asked with a smile. He looked over all of them, but his smile faded at the sight of Riku. "You!"

He then punched Riku in the face, and the silver haired boy exclaimed as he fell to the floor.

"Oh, no, he's not a bad guy anymore," Vanitas explained. "We made up. He's cool now."

"Oh, my bad," Tony said with a smirk as he held out a hand for Riku.

Riku took it and winced as Tony helped him stand up.

"So, besides openly punching teenagers in the face," Donald commented. "What's been going on with you guys?"

"Well, turns out HYDRA was still around," Steve Rogers explained. "It grew inside SHIELD, soon replacing our agents with their agents."

"We figured it out last year when V and another friend of his helped us stop them from using three helicarriers to kill millions of people and make them into Heartless," Natasha Romanoff added. She looked at Sora. "Do you know about..."

"V already explained to us about Roxas," Sora explained. "He was my Nobody."

"In the end, he returned to Sora by his own volition," Riku informed them, figuring that they had probably been hearing the bad things he had done to try to wake up Sora.

"Well, that's good to hear," Clint Barton commented. "He was a good kid."

"I'm gonna miss him," Steve admitted.

"Join the club," Vanitas commented.

"Friend V," Thor said with a frown. "What is wrong with your voice?"

"Oh, well, we managed to track down the Organization and took them out," Sora said.

"Right before we battled Mansex..." Riku said, trailing off with a laugh. Tony, Bruce, and Vanitas laughed with him while the rest of the Avengers looked confused. "We found the real Ansem. He had a machine that exploded right in front of us. Gave me back my appearance, and gave V back his life force."

"Oh, shit!" Tony exclaimed with a laugh as he looked at Vanitas.

"I still don't remember shit," Vanitas admitted with a laugh. "And my powers are wonky as fuck. But I can feel and taste food again. I call that a win."

"You should," Bruce said as he and Tony wrapped Vanitas in another hug.

"Uh, fellahs?" Mickey asked.

Everyone looked at him, and Steve, Natasha, and Clint's eyes widened.

"And I thought I couldn't be any more surprised after Donald and Goofy," Clint muttered to Natasha.

"Honestly, after spending just one day with this group, very little surprises you anymore," Natasha admitted.

"Was the reason we came here to socialize?" Mickey asked.

"Well, it was one reason," Donald admitted.

"Yeah, friends reuniting is a good reason to socialize," Kairi commented.

"Actually, it's a good thing you're here," Steve informed them.

"Really?" Sora asked. "Why?"

"We took out the HYDRA command central last year with SHIELD," Steve explained. "But there are still lots of small bases hidden around the world. And we found one that had acquired Loki's scepter."

Sora and Vanitas's eyes widened. They remembered that scepter a little too well. It wasn't until after they had all had the shawarma together that they realized that that thing was fueling their anger in the lab, igniting the fight even worse than it was supposed to be.

"Where is it?" Sora asked.

"In the Eastern European country of Sokovia," Clint told them. "We just found out, and we're about to prepare to go there and get it."

Tony looked at them in consideration and tilted his head up.

"You don't even have to ask," Sora assured him.

"Hell, yeah," Vanitas said. "We're in."

"So are we!" Donald announced.

"Yeah, we missed out the entire adventure last time because we were in the med bay," Goofy announced. "We wanna help this time!"

"I like your enthusiasm," Steve said, pointing at Donald and Goofy. He thought for a second. "Eh, what the hell. We were ready to bring in Sora and V. What's two more seats in the Quinjet?"

"What about the rest of you?" Clint asked.

"I'm not ready to get involved after what we just went through," Mickey admitted. "Sorry."

"I'm still reeling a bit from the punch," Riku said, gripping his nose.

"I'm not that much of a fighter," Kairi admitted. "V gave me like two lessons of gun training, but that's it. Sorry."

"Shame," Natasha commented. "We could've used some diversity in our group."

"What?" Vanitas laughed. "A god, an archer, a soldier from World War II, a billionaire playboy, two teenagers, a scientist with a _really_ special problem and a former Russian spy isn't enough diversity?"

"You know what I meant," Natasha said with a small smile. "I did not miss your sarcasm."

Vanitas smirked and flipped her the bird.

"Come on inside," Bruce told everyone, gesturing with a hand to the door behind them. He gestured to Riku, Mickey, and Kairi. "We'll make sure you guys are comfortable."

"And the rest of you," Steve said, looking at Sora, Vanitas, Donald, and Goofy. "Suit up."

The Gummi quartet nodded their heads in agreement and followed the Avengers across the landing pad to the door.

They had work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 What's the name of the movie that's from again?
> 
> *2 Yes, that's a reference to Guardians Vol. 1
> 
> Welp, don't even need to use this to explain to you guys what's next, do I? I'm really looking forward to it, partly because, like I said, it was technically the first movie in the MCU I've ever seen. Whenever my dad tried dragging me to them before, I refused because I wasn't interested, and that was the first win for him. I don't regret giving him that one. I loved the movie, and while I was confused at Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (partly 'cause I had already seen Quicksilver in X Men Days of Future Past with my dad. Those ones I let him win), I won over to them. I was a little upset that Quicksilver had died, because I did not see that coming. But I was also excited for Vision, 'cause I thought he was so badass. I mean, who doesn't love a robot like character tearing shit up? (Enter Terminator 😂 )
> 
> Now, the story, it'll be a little while before Riku, Kairi, and Mickey get involved with them, but there's gonna be extra Donald and Goofy to tide things over. Along with an extra character. If you got my hints from II Vanitas Mix, you can probably guess who it is.
> 
> And I'm real excited for what I got planning with him


End file.
